Did you ever think that cover letters and
interviewing were similar in some ways to
dating?
An interesting piece on Morning Edition repeated
what I have heard in the past about the use of
certain words in conversations. The piece pointed
out that when each of a pair in a conversation
matches each others rate of use of articles,
pronouns, and functional words, they would
result more in a date.
In studying “power dynamics” in a pair James
Pennebaker has analyzed the language use and
correlated it to the relative social status. The person
who holds a position of relatively higher status speaks
“I” less frequently.
Pennebaker has shown similar things in writing
samples, too. He also believes that a person cannot
change him or herself by changing their language.
He does believe individuals change their language by
changing themselves.
April 30th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Amy Cuddy, a short piece in Wired magazine reported
a study revealing certain postures and poses affects
hormone levels– of testosterone and cortisol.
Special poses may be like stretching exercises before
a race for going into an interview.
Wired, May 2012, p. 54. http://www.wired.com/magazine/