Linguistic Style and Social Historical Context: An Automated Linguistic Analysis of Mao Zedong’s Speeches

Times of crisis and prosperity may be the most defining moments of leadership and therefore one of the most important contexts in which to study leadership processes. In the present research we explored linguistic patterns of cognitive complexity, social representations and social coordination of Mao Zedong speeches during different socio-historical contexts, namely times of prosperity and crisis. The texts of Mao Zedong were analyzed using a computerized text analysis tool, Linguistic Inquiry Word Count ( LIWC ), to explore how his linguistic style was influenced by the social climate. The Pearson’s correlations and structural equation modeling results show, during times of prosperity, Chairman Mao’s linguistic style increased in cognitive complexity, social representations and social coordination.