LINGUISTIC BASES OF SOCIAL-PERCEPTION

Target persons were videotaped while engaged in an interview. A text a nalysis program was used to ascertain the frequency with which they em ployed negative emotion words, positive emotion words, words reflectin g cognitive operations, self-referents, present-tense verbs, negations , and unique words in their verbalizations. Judges viewed the videotap es and evaluated the target persons on a number of social perception d imensions. The language dimensions accounted for significant and subst antial proportions of the variance in impressions of the target person s beyond that explained by traditionally studied person perception var iables such as physical attractiveness, nonverbal expressiveness, and facial maturity. The results indicate the critical role that language plays in social perception and interaction.