Psycholinguistic AnalysisExample of a Psycholinguistic Analysis
To demonstrate the power of our psycholinguistic program, we chose to analyze an interview that centered on a seemingly trivial product, face wash. One can assume that such a trivial product should not evoke a profound reaction in the subconscious. Since Computer Intuition was designed to uncover the emotional signal produced in the subconscious, a faint signal would impose a formidable challenge to the program. Let examine the input.
The input
The input included one hour in-depth interview with a women using face wash. The transcript of the interview included 32 pages of text.
The output
Interpretation
Computer Intuition, our psycholinguistic program identified four segments in the text with high emotional intensity. These segments are highlighted in yellow, blue, and red. Yellow marks high emotional intensity, blue very high emotional intensity, and red extremely high emotional intensity.
Segment 1:
Question: Are colors important to you?
Answer: I was just saying that color … because everything needs to fit in my bathroom. So I've got the face wash that matches the pink colors in my in bathroom.
Question: What does your face wash look like?
Answer: Green meadows.
Question: You buy for the color or the smell?
Answer: Both. I happen to get both. I don’t like ... I don't know, I always get the … I don't know, because you can see it. Mine is one of those things that, you can see before you squeeze it out. If I see, like if it's clear, like that big green bottle…. This one is just ugly. It reminds me a trash can. The dark one is like … in the clear bottle. I can see it, it’s green, and I'll buy it. I’m not sure why.
Comments:
Note the word “see” and the related word “clear.” In this segment the word “see” appears four times and “clear” once. Why is it important to see the face wash before squeezing it out? Why seeing translates into buying? As this segment suggests, seeing is the tip of a giant emotional iceberg. But what is this iceberg made of? What does seeing mean? See next. Note the two words “trash can.” Why do they evoke such a high emotional intensity? How are he phrases “matches the pink colors in my in bathroom,” “green meadows,” “seeing,” and “trash can” related?
Segment 2:
Question: Which one do you like the spout on this bottle or the spout on this one?
Answer: This one. Those two spouts would either work for me. [Note the change of subject. She returns to the topic of coloring even though the topic has changed.] The coloring would be kind of, like a green and wheat. I'm thinking that the labeling will be red, and then the bottle would be kind of like a wheat.
Question: Like the actual packaging would be wheat colored?
Answer: Yes, wheat.
Comments:
Note the word “wheat” for the color of the packaging. Why wheat? After all, wheat is not a standard color like red and blue. According to the Christian website Symbols in Christian Art and Architecture: “Wheat is a rich biblical symbol. From Jesus' parables, wheat came to represent believers over against the ‘weeds’ or ‘tares’, which represent unbelievers.” Wheat represents believing or trusting. See also the verse “Separating the Wheat from the chaff”? in Matthew 13:24-30, which alludes to the separation of believers from non believers. Jeremiah 23:28 also associates wheat with trustworthiness or truthfulness. “The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.” Note the relationship between the words “wheat” and “faithfully.”
An important technique in psycholinguistic analysis is reading OUT of context. Since the same subconscious produced both segments of text, they must be related. So the question is “what is the relationship between seeing and wheat, the ideas in segment 1 and 1?”
Remember the expression: “Seeing is believing.” The two words: “seeing” and “wheat” point to the same deep meaning: believing. As it turns out, the main problem with chemical based face washes is their suspicious nature. People learned to mistrust chemicals, mistrust their toxic effects, and their negative impact on the environment. The opposite of artificial is natural. The meaning of natural according to this dataset is therefore trustworthy, believable. A face wash should be designed to help the customer believe in it, or trust it. Trust its potency; trust its gentleness, etc.
How does the phase “matches the pink colors in my in bathroom” relate to trust issue? This person seeks to harmonize her personal surrounding. The same tendency she exhibits towards her natural surrounding. She wants the products she is using to protect not damage nature, hence, her preferences towards natural, trustworthy products. The same idea can be found in the phrase “green meadows.”
Segment 3:
Answer: My face wash is like a foam. You know, like, if you buy the kind that starts as liquid and then foams when you pump it out, like the Oxy kind, it really gets the dirt off. My face wash has something in it that makes it foam, and it really gets the dirt and oil off. If you leave it on your face for a while, like it doesn't sting or anything it just feels clean. That to me works really well.
Comments:
Note the word “really.” This word also hints at the issue of trust. The interviewee feels that her claims might face some disbelief, the customary reaction in this product category, so she added “really.” This instinctive anticipation of disbelief suggests a large marketing opportunity. Linking the “natural” face wash with “one that can be trusted” will first leverage on an already ingrained association between “natural” and “trustworthy,” and second address a fundamental need in this product category, the need for a trustworthy product.
Segment 4:
Answer: …I just threw some keywords out, definitely like natural face wash, or face soap. I put Biodegradable. I had antibacterial, gentle for sensitive skin, no chemical residues I thought was good. Hypoallergenic. All of those keywords. Non-astringent, those were pretty much all I had. I had a aloe just came at me, and I really love aloe. I think that's a good natural scent. I don't think we brought that one up before. I would say a aloe would be good for natural in a clear. I like the clear. The clear color ... I like that one, but like that color to me isn't so natural. More like a clear. I do, I mean, this to me is a natural color. For some reason that doesn't strike at me, but this greenish color or like a clear, more than that yellowy.
Comments:
Note the word clear, another representation of the need to see the face wash while still in the container. Also note the world natural, i.e. trustworthy.
Some concluding remarks:
1. Why is the psycholinguistic program better than humans in reading emotions from text? The word trust, or believe, was not found in the text. It was discovered by the OUT of context reading.
2. The expression “I don’t know” appears 72(!) times in the interview, which shows that the interviewee is completely unaware of her deep mental states.
3. Want to compare yourself the Computer Intuition program? Send us an email and we will send you a text to analyze. Then we will send you the results of the psycholinguistic analysis.