ArticleNature communications2024
Behavioral consequences of second-person pronouns in written communications between authors and reviewers of scientific papers.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- A validated Mandarin Chinese Auditory Emotion Database of Subject-Personal-Pronoun Sentences (MCAE-SPPS).Scientific data · 2026Article
- Gender and disciplinary differences in grant proposal peer review: Content and sentiment in 39,280 reports.PloS one · 2026Article
- Behavioral consequences of second-person pronouns in written communications between authors and reviewers of scientific papers.Nature communications · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Pronoun usage's psychological underpinning and behavioral consequence have fascinated researchers, with much research attention paid to second-person pronouns like "you," "your," and "yours." While these pronouns' effects are understood in many contexts, their role in bilateral, dynamic conversations (especially those outside of close relationships) remains less explored. This research attempts to bridge this gap by examining 25,679 instances of peer review correspondence with Nature Communications using the difference-in-differences method. Here we show that authors addressing reviewers using second-person pronouns receive fewer questions, shorter responses, and more positive feedback. Further analyses suggest that this shift in the review process occurs because "you" (vs. non-"you") usage creates a more personal and engaging conversation. Employing the peer review process of scientific papers as a backdrop, this research reveals the behavioral and psychological effects that second-person pronouns have in interactive written communications.
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