The Secret Life of Pronouns
What Our Words Say About Us
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Narrated by:
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Robert Fass
About this listen
We spend our lives communicating. In the last 50 years, we've zoomed through radically different forms of communication, from typewriters to tablet computers, text messages to tweets. We generate more and more words with each passing day. Hiding in that deluge of language are amazing insights into who we are, how we think, and what we feel.
In The Secret Life of Pronouns, social psychologist and language expert James W. Pennebaker uses his groundbreaking research in computational linguistics - in essence, counting the frequency of words we use - to show that our language carries secrets about our feelings, our self-concept, and our social intelligence. Our most forgettable words, such as pronouns and prepositions, can be the most revealing: their patterns are as distinctive as fingerprints.
Using innovative analytic techniques, Pennebaker X-rays everything from Craigslist advertisements to the Federalist Papers - or your own writing, in quizzes you can take yourself - to yield unexpected insights. Who would have predicted that the high-school student who uses too many verbs in her college admissions essay is likely to make lower grades in college? Or that a world leader's use of pronouns could reliably presage whether he will lead his country into war? You'll learn why it's bad when politicians use "we" instead of "I", what Lady Gaga and William Butler Yeats have in common, and how Ebenezer Scrooge's syntax hints at his self-deception and repressed emotion. Barack Obama, Sylvia Plath, and King Lear are among the figures who make cameo appearances in this sprightly, surprising tour of what our words are saying - whether we mean them to or not.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2011 James W. Pennebaker (P)2012 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: David West
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Our increasing reliance on technology and the Internet has opened a window for mathematicians and data researchers to gaze through into our lives. Using the data they are constantly collecting about where we travel, where we shop, what we buy, what interests us, they can begin to predict our daily habits, and increasingly we are relinquishing our decision making to algorithms - are we giving up this up too easily?
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A good reality check for "Cambridge Hyperbolitica"
- By Haggai Elkayam on 08-06-18
By: David Sumpter
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The Formula
- How Algorithms Solve all our Problems…and Create More
- By: Luke Dormehl
- Narrated by: Daniel Weyman
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A fascinating guided tour of the complex, fast-moving, and influential world of algorithms - what they are, why they’re such powerful predictors of human behavior, and where they’re headed next. Algorithms exert an extraordinary level of influence on our everyday lives - from dating websites and financial trading floors, through to online retailing and internet searches - Google's search algorithm is now a more closely guarded commercial secret than the recipe for Coca-Cola.
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Not about algorithms. Not an original book.
- By Landon Rordam on 12-02-14
By: Luke Dormehl
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Smarter Than You Think
- How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better
- By: Clive Thompson
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In Smarter Than You Think, Thompson documents how every technological innovation - from the printing press to the telegraph - has provoked the very same anxieties that plague us today. We panic that life will never be the same, that our attentions are eroding, that culture is being trivialized. But as in the past, we adapt, learning to use the new and retaining what’s good of the old.
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Title should be Getting Smarter Through Technology
- By A. Yoshida on 03-10-17
By: Clive Thompson
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Sway
- The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
- By: Rom Brafman, Ori Brafman
- Narrated by: John Apicella
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
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A Harvard Business School student pays over $200 for a $20 bill. Washington, D.C., commuters ignore a free subway concert by a violin prodigy. A veteran airline pilot attempts to take off without control-tower clearance and collides with another plane on the runway. Why do we do the wildly irrational things we sometimes do?
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Disappointing book
- By Martin Proulx on 12-10-08
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The Compassionate Achiever
- How Helping Others Fuels Success
- By: Christopher L. Kukk
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
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For decades we've been told the key to prosperity is to look out for number one. But recent science shows that to achieve durable success, we need to be more than just achievers; we need to be compassionate achievers. New research in biology, neuroscience, and economics has found that compassion - recognizing a problem or caring about another's pain and making a commitment to help - not only improves others' lives; it can transform our own.
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Me me me
- By Someone or not? on 04-04-20
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Turned On
- Science, Sex and Robots
- By: Kate Devlin
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Sexual activity is central to our very existence; it shapes how we think, how we act and how we live. With advances in technology come machines that may one day think independently. What will happen to us when we form close relationships with these intelligent systems? Sex robots are here and here to stay, and more are coming. This audiobook explores how the emerging and future development of sexual companion robots might affect us and the society in which we live. It explores the social changes arising from emerging technologies and our relationships with the machines that may someday care for us and about us.
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Nuanced, Smart, and Compassionate
- By Karen on 01-20-19
By: Kate Devlin
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Friend and Foe
- When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both
- By: Adam D. Galinsky, Maurice E. Schweitzer
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In Friend and Foe, researchers Galinsky and Schweitzer explain why this debate misses the mark. Rather than being hardwired to compete or cooperate, humans have evolved to do both. It is only by learning how to strike the right balance between these two forces that we can improve our long-term relationships and get more of what we want.
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Unexpected
- By Garron Rose on 01-05-16
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Mindware
- Tools for Smart Thinking
- By: Richard E. Nisbett
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
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Many scientific and philosophical ideas are so powerful that they can be applied to our lives at home, work, and school to help us think smarter and more effectively about our behavior and the world around us. Surprisingly, many of these ideas remain unknown to most of us. In Mindware, the world-renowned psychologist Richard Nisbett presents these ideas in clear and accessible detail, offering a tool kit for better thinking and wiser decisions.
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Sound scientific advice on how to live your life
- By Neuron on 08-26-15
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Galileo's Middle Finger
- Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science
- By: Alice Dreger
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
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A powerful defense of intellectual freedom told through the ordeals of contemporary scientists attacked for exploring controversial ideas, by a noted science historian and medical activist.
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Engrossing but...
- By Lilly F. on 12-30-20
By: Alice Dreger
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How to Spot a Liar
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- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
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Have you ever been lied to? Of course you have, whether you knew it or not. Ever caught a spouse, business partner, parent, boss, or child brazenly lying right to your face? What if you could tell someone was lying, just by listening to them, and observing their action and behavior? Here's the first audiobook that gives you the tools to figure out what's really going on.
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Highly educational
- By Lorelei on 12-21-07
By: Gregory Hartley, and others
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What listeners say about The Secret Life of Pronouns
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- WordNerd
- 06-02-12
Interesting exploration of language subtleties
I enjoyed Pennebaker's research and insight into how the "little words" we use, those sly little buggers like articles and pronouns, have such a big impact on the messages we convey and receive, and how we process them primarily through our subconscious mind. The dissection of corporate and political communications he used as examples throughout helped to clarify and reinforce his points.
The narration was a good match for the material. The narrator's pace, diction and inflection complemented the content and gave it life, delivering Pennebaker's subtle humor in just the right manner and reading more like a story than a dry research paper. There were a few areas, such as where he touched upon forensics, that started down the academic path, but for the most part the writing was as entertaining as it was informative and enlightening.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Jim Fuqua
- 02-15-15
Great Book!
This is an informative book that is a bit difficult to take at one time.
It would be easy to say that the author could have presented the same material in a much shorter book. That would be possibly true for the general thrust of this book, but there were so many very good bits and pieces that would have been omitted, that I prefer it as written.
I listened to this book about thirty minutes at a time. When I started thinking I was hearing more that I wanted to know I shifted to another book for the day. In hindsight, I can say that I am glad that I listened to the entire book.
This author obviously had the help of a large number of graduate students helping or extending his research. He is also extremely knowledgeable about many facets of human behavior.
This is a book about how we use language and what our choice of words says about how we think, but it is much more. This is as much a book about people and how they behave as it is about pronouns and other simple English words.
Jim Fuqua
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3 people found this helpful
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- Micah Balch
- 08-23-19
Interesting information
I just finished a book about non-verbal language a few days ago so after reading this book I’m pretty sure nobody is ever gonna fool me again, right? By the the way I highly recommend this book if you’re interesting in the subject.
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- Heather Robinson
- 01-11-24
Amazing Insight to Seemingly Mundane Information
Very interesting material on how people give themselves away without ever realizing it. Presented in an easy to follow, concise, and enjoyable manner. Highly recommend for those who love to look behind the curtain to see how things really work.
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- Lynn
- 09-24-12
Sticks and Stones and Words Can Really Help You
James Pennebaker has surprised me with a little book titled, The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us. I got through the first chapter or so and discovered that it is a really informative book. Stay with me now! This book is not about pronouns, per se, but about what our use of pronouns says about our behavior. He reports his empirical research in the field of words and applies his findings to everyday work and life. Along the way, he reveals how writing our thoughts can help alleviate tension, improve health, and relieve depression. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on words in organizations where Pennebaker distinguishes between “I”, “we” and “they” organizations. Valuable as well is the chapter in which he provides short-cuts to using the insights he has covered to understanding daily encounters with colleagues and friends. The audio book is read by Rober Fass to advantage. There are numerous refereces to PDFs which are readily available. I just kept listening and could follow the basic arguments and ideas readily without them. This book is well worth your time. Turn a few pages and see if there isn’t insight you can use.
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11 people found this helpful
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- GSW
- 06-11-24
Interesting look on the English language
Interesting look on the English language. These really are hidden little clues. It helps if you know quite about about nouns, conjunctions, predicates, etc
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