Abstract
The study examined the relationship between language use and perception of group processes. In an experiment, participants discussed their views about climate change in a group chat. Afterward, participants ( n = 239) filled out their perception of themselves and group processes. Participants who perceived more similarity among group members used less complex language (cognitive processes language) and more assenting language. As participants felt more knowledgeable and credible about the topic, their use of “we” pronouns and word count increased and use of “I” pronouns decreased. Replicating past research, participants with more extreme opinions used more “you” pronouns, and participants who reported engaging in more perspective-taking used more complex language and “we” pronouns. Results are integrated within an input–process–output model of group processes and suggest that language is reflective of individual inputs and perception of group processes.
Highlights
Holtgraves and Kashima (2008) state that “language use frequently involves the recoding of implicit, nonlinguistic representations into explicit, linguistic ones” (p. 74)
Assenting language was positively related to the perception of group similarity, in support of Hypothesis 2 (H2)
This article added to the literature on group processes and language use by examining concepts such as perception of group similarity, self-credibility, and perspective-taking that have not been examined in relation to language use
Summary
Holtgraves and Kashima (2008) state that “language use frequently involves the recoding of implicit, nonlinguistic representations into explicit, linguistic ones” (p. 74). In a recent review of language in group discourse (Van Swol & Kane, 2019), granular level use of language, such as use of pronouns, related to group processes and individual differences such as status and conflict. Group inputs and interactions among members may affect group processes and perception of the group, such as cohesion and conflict, which can be reflected in language use. We focus on how language variables such as use of pronouns, language complexity, or assenting language may reflect initial inputs, like individual member opinion, and reflect perception of the interaction and group members, like perception of similarity of members or taking the perspective of others. This article aims to fill in some of these gaps by introducing new group processes and outputs, including similarity and perspective-taking into the study of language and group, and by trying to replicate previous research on extremity of opinion and language use. Research has found that a perception of ingroup homogeneity is linked to stronger group identity (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Simon & Pettigrew, 1990), and group members from groups with homogeneous members tend to retain a stronger identity to their group than more heterogeneous groups (Deffa, 2016)
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