Table 2.

Changes in the use of affection words and of individualism words in the American English books, 1960–2008.

	r with year	Beta for year square	Use 1960 vs. 2008 (SD)	d	% change	r with first-person singular pronoun
Love you	0.96∗∗∗	0.23	0.00040–0.0014% (0.00030%)	3.33	350%	0.96∗∗∗
Like you	0.96∗∗∗	0.25	0.00060–0.0018% (0.00041%)	2.93	300%	0.96∗∗∗
Kiss	0.93∗∗∗	0.33∗	0.00094–0.0024% (0.00045%)	3.24	255%	0.97∗∗∗
Hug	0.96∗∗∗	0.27	0.000096–0.00073% (0.00021%)	3.01	760%	0.96∗∗∗
Verbal affection words	0.96∗∗∗	0.24	0.0010–0.0032% (0.00072%)	3.06	320%	0.96∗∗∗
Non-verbal affection	0.94∗∗∗	0.32∗	0.0010–0.0031% (0.00066%)	3.18	310%	0.97∗∗∗
All affection words	0.95∗∗∗	0.28	0.0020–0.0063% (0.0014%)	3.07	315%	0.97∗∗∗

Verbal affection words include “love you” and “like you” and non-verbal affection words include “kiss” and “hug.” Usage means and d (difference in terms of standard deviations) are based on the frequency of affection words at 1960 and 2008. The Beta for year square is from a regression equation with the square of year (centered) as the dependent variable. ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗∗p < 0.001.