The rise and fall of rationality in language | Zendy

Marten Scheffer | Zendy; Ingrid van de Leemput | Zendy; Els Weinans | Zendy; Johan Bollen | Zendy

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The rise and fall of rationality in language

Author(s) -

Marten Scheffer,

Ingrid van de Leemput,

Els Weinans,

Johan Bollen

Publication year - 2021

Publication title -

proceedings of the national academy of sciences

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011

H-Index - 771

eISSN - 1091-6490

pISSN - 0027-8424

DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2107848118

Subject(s) - argumentation theory , surprise , collectivism , rationality , individualism , language change , linguistics , cognitive psychology , psychology , epistemology , social psychology , philosophy , law , political science

Significance The post-truth era has taken many by surprise. Here, we use massive language analysis to demonstrate that the rise of fact-free argumentation may perhaps be understood as part of a deeper change. After the year 1850, the use of sentiment-laden words in Google Books declined systematically, while the use of words associated with fact-based argumentation rose steadily. This pattern reversed in the 1980s, and this change accelerated around 2007, when across languages, the frequency of fact-related words dropped while emotion-laden language surged, a trend paralleled by a shift from collectivistic to individualistic language.

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