Computational analysis of US Congressional speeches reveals a shift from evidence to intuition

Segun  Aroyehun; Almog Simchon; Fabio Carrella; Jana Lasser; Stephan Lewandowsky; David Garcia

doi:10.1038/s41562-025-02136-2

Computational analysis of US Congressional speeches reveals a shift from evidence to intuition

Segun Aroyehun^*, Almog Simchon, Fabio Carrella, Jana Lasser, Stephan Lewandowsky^*, David Garcia

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Pursuit of honest and truthful decision-making is crucial for governance and accountability in democracies. However, people sometimes take different perspectives of what it means to be honest and how to pursue truthfulness. Here we explore a continuum of perspectives from evidence-based reasoning, rooted in ascertainable facts and data, at one end, to intuitive decisions that are driven by feelings and subjective interpretations, at the other. We analyze the linguistic traces of those contrasting perspectives in Congressional speeches from 1879 to 2022. We find that evidence-based language has continued to decline since the mid-1970s, together with a decline in legislative productivity. The decline was accompanied by increasing partisan polarization in Congress and rising income inequality in society. Results highlight
the importance of evidence-based language in political decision-making.

Original language	English
Article number	16
Pages (from-to)	1122-1133
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature Human Behaviour
Volume	9
Issue number	6
Early online date	10 Apr 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02136-2
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 10 Apr 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.

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SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

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Lewandowsky, S. (Principal Investigator), Westaway, R. M. (Administrator) & Carrella, F. (Researcher)
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Cite this

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Computational analysis of US Congressional speeches reveals a shift from evidence to intuition

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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