- A study find we are living in a post-truth era where feelings trump facts
- Data shows rational language was popular from 1850 through the 1980s
- The language was then replaced by more emotional dialect
- Words like ‘determine’ and ‘conclusion’ have been replaced with human experience such as ‘feel’ and ‘believe’
- Experts say it could be due to a rapid development in technology and the birth of social media
By Stacy Liberatore For Dailymail.com
Published: 08:06 AEDT, 15 January 2022 | Updated: 08:07 AEDT, 15 January 2022
A new study suggests we are living in the post-truth era where ‘feelings trump facts,’ as language has become less rational and more emotional over the past 40 years.
A team of scientists found words like ‘determine’ and ‘conclusion’ that were popular from 1850 through 1980 have been since been replaced with human experience such as ‘feel’ and ‘believe.’
The team also identified another major shift around 2007 with the birth of social media, when the use of emotion-laden language surged and fact-related words dropped.
Although the drivers behind the shift cannot be determined, the researchers suggest it could be a rapid development in science and technology or tensions that came about from changes in economic polices in the early 1980s.