Detecting Veracity in Selected Speeches of Egyptian Presidents (1956-2015) and American Presidents (1981- 2015): A Psycholinguistic Corpus-based Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Al-Alsun, Ain Shams University.

2 Faculty of Al-Alsun, Ain Shams University

Abstract

Language and psychology have much in common in the sense that each of these two disciplines can be used to study the
features of the other one. Words that people use every day carry a lot of explicit linguistic features which signal some implicit psychological traits, personal characteristics, social relations and cognitive processes. Since more attention has been recently paidto such an area of research, this study investigates linguistic and psychological features used as indicators of veracity or deception. The study examines selected speeches of the last five Egyptian and American presidents using a computerized content analysis tool called LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count). Drawing on previous researches that examine the psychometrics of the language, this study follows an eclectic approach adopting Newman et al.’s model combined with other cues to deception concluded by other studies. The analysis detects the frequency of using pronouns, negation, exclusive words, details, conjunctions and big words in the speeches in order to reveal instances of deception.

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