AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- A Texas psychologist who analyzes presidential speech says Barack Obama's emotional style is most comparable to Ronald Reagan's.
University of Texas at Austin psychologist James Pennebaker says people scoring higher on the social-emotional style dimension truly enjoy talking and connecting with others -- George W. Bush was the highest, followed by Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.
"Not as emotionally or socially detached as Richard M. Nixon and earlier presidents, Obama's style is comparable to that of Reagan's," Pennebaker says in a statement. "His is the language of the confident leader as opposed to the close buddy."
Pennebaker used a computer program he's developed to measure the relationship between language and personality. He compared the words Obama used Wednesday to those in State of the Union addresses delivered by every president since Harry S Truman in 1946.
Jimmy Carter, Reagan and Clinton were consistently the most positive in their State of the Union addresses but Obama is the least positive and he uses far more words that convey sadness, anxiety or anger, Pennebaker says.
A State of the Union address needs to convey complex ideas in ways that a broad audience can understand, Pennebaker says. John F. Kennedy and Obama are two presidents ranking extraordinarily high in complex thinking, with Nixon and George H.W. Bush a distant third and fourth, he says.
