Comparison of the Books of the New Testament (English Translation) in Terms of Emotion and Word Use

Abstract

The 27 books of the New Testament (English Translation) were scored using the Dictionary of Affect in Language. Books were compared with one another in terms of Activation, Pleasantness, and Imagery scores, and in terms of word length, use of the word “love,” and mentions of Jesus. Significant differences among books were evident for all variables. A table of means and standard errors is provided. Measures of the books were related to one another, e.g., Pleasantness score and the use of the word “love” (ρ = .80) and to descriptors of the books, e.g., longer books tended to score lower on Pleasantness (ρ = -.79).