The Secret Life of Pronouns

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a book by James W. Pennebaker

Your LSM Results

The LSM score gives us a sense of how similarly two people are using language. It can indicate how synchronized their use of words is.

WARNING: These results are not trustworthy because at least one writing sample is fewer than 50 words.

Your LSM score is 1

Compared to other that we have analyzed, your LSM score is far above average To give you an idea, most LSM scores for range between .75 and .95, with an average around .84. The more that the two people are paying attention to each other in their interaction, the higher the LSM.

LSM is higher in ongoing conversations such as IMs, telephone calls, or face-to-face conversations. LSM is lower in emails, letters, or other less direct interactions. The more similar the topic and the mindset of the two authors, the more the LSM score should be similar.

Do not take this feedback about LSM too seriously. It is still in the experimental phase. Several factors can lead to LSM scores that are too low. Problems may include:

  • Too few words by one or both authors
  • Very different genres of writing between the two people
  • An extreme number of misspellings or IM shortcuts (words such as “2” for “to” or “b4” for “before”). If you think this was a problem, correct these problems and see if your numbers change.

Some of the best way to interpret your own feedback is to run different LSM scores with IMs or emails to and from other friends. Or track LSM scores with the same person over time. Once you start comparing your numbers, you can get a better sense of your average LSM numbers.