A meta-analysis of correlations between depression and first person singular pronoun use

- Depression is linked to the use of first person singular pronouns (r = 0.13).
- This effect is not moderated by demographic factors, such as gender.
- The effect is nominally larger among unpublished studies.
- There is little to no evidence of publication bias in this literature.

Depression is a burden. We discuss how theories, identification, assessment, and treatment of depression are at least partially tied to the correlation between first person singular pronoun use and individual differences in depression. We conducted a meta-analysis (k = 21, N = 3758) of these correlations, including numerous unpublished correlations from the file drawer. Our fixed effects analysis revealed a small correlation (r = 0.13, 95% CI = [0.10-0.16]) by modern standards. The correlation was not moderated by gender, nor by whether the effect had been published. These results more firmly establish first person singular pronoun use as a linguistic marker of depression-a marker that appears to be useful across demographic lines.