Getting your point across to the masses can make or break a campaign, and it seems U.S. presidential candidates have been simplifying their language to do so over the past 50 years.
Analyzing debate transcripts going back to the 1960s, Grammarly’s new research paper, The Language of Politics, found that both Democratic and Republican politicians have been using fewer complex sentences over time. And the strategy has been scoring better among Republicans than Democrats.
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In 1960, 12.3 per cent of John F. Kennedy’s sentences were complex, and 13.8 per cent of Richard Nixon’s. Those numbers peaked in 1980 with Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan at around 17 per cent.
The numbers took a dive with George H.W. Bush, at 6.3 per cent in 1988 and 4.3 in 1992.
John Kerry was calculated to have the fewest complex sentences of all Democrats tallied; in 2004 his number (5.4 per cent) hovered near his rival George W. Bush (4.4 per cent.)
Barack Obama bucked the trend, with more than 10 per cent of his sentences calculated to be complex in both 2008 and 2012.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s speech bottoms out at 3.3 per cent, the lowest of all politicians studied.
Simple language polls higher with GOP, lower with Democrats
The race to the White House has felt more like a marathon as the huge number of candidates has been whittled down to just a few. Over that time, Republicans who used simple language have tended to poll higher, while it’s been the opposite for Democrats.
Donald Trump, with just 3.3 per cent of his sentences rated as complex, has crushed his more complex-sentence speaking Republican rivals in the polls. Hillary Clinton has polled ahead of Bernie Sanders, while her speech contains more complex sentences.
Grammarly has identified the most-mentioned topics during debates ahead of the 2016 vote:
- Jobs
- Economy
- Immigration
- Taxes
- Healthcare
- Education
- Budget
- Social Security
- Spending
- Energy
- Guns
- Crime
- Foreign policy
- Veterans
- Medicare