Research

Social Anxiety and Word Use: How Environments Can Influence Words

Language provides insight into individuals' perceptions, needs, and desires; in addition, stress has been shown to influence how others perceive an individual. In the current study, we investigated the impact of stress on language. The ninety-four participants enrolled were asked to complete a speech about the body part of theirs that they liked the least. Speeches were transcribed and entered into linguistic software where a percentage of specific word use of the whole speech sample was analyzed.