Social psychologist James Pennebaker in his fascinating book The Secret Life of Pronouns (2011) explains that our usage of the first-person plural and first-person singular pronouns is remarkably revealing. Use of “we” is more common in strong marriages and close-knit teams, for example. Similarly, high-status, confident people, focused on the task at hand, not on themselves, use fewer “I” words. Frequent use of “I” is associated with depression and suicide; indeed, researchers have reported that pronouns are actually more reliable in identifying depression than negative emotion words, like
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