Words speak more than you think!

Imagine you are considering lending money to one of the two following people.  They are the same age, race and gender, live in the same area and have the same level of income and credit score.

Person 1: I am a hardworking person, married for 25 years, and I have two wonderful boys. Please let me explain why I need help. I would use the Rs. 10,000 loan to fix our roof. Thank you, God bless you, and I promise to pay you back.

Person 2: While the past year in our new place has been more than great, the roof is now leaking, and I need to borrow Rs. 10,000 to cover the cost of the repair. I pay all bills on time.

Which of these people do you think is more likely to pay the money back?

Person 2 will repay. Person 1 is a Vijay Mallya in the making!

Let me explain with an interesting study done by researchers who analysed more than 120,000 loans requests. While they studied financial and demographic material given by the applicants, they especially analysed the words used in the application.

Financial and demographic information were pretty useful in predicting who would default. No surprises there. But the words and text were as predictive in telling who would repay and who would default.

Researchers found that repayers were more likely to use words and phrases related to their financial situation or improvements in financial ability. They used words and phrases that indicated their financial literacy. They also wrote about their school, employment, interest rates, monthly payments etc.

Defaulters used a distinctly different language. They mentioned words or phrases related to financial hardships or their distress. They used words that tried to explain their situation more. Moreover, they pleaded for help or invoked God more often!

Also, defaulters focused more on the near term while repayers focused on the longer term. Defaulters talked more about others while repayers talked about themselves.

Thus, researchers were able to prove that our words reveal our future actions. No matter how much we try to hide our true intentions and feelings, our words reveal it in black and white. Literally!

By the way, dear reader, I am in desperate need of some money. It was not my fault. Some friends cheated me. I am in big trouble. Can you kindly lend me Rs. 10,000. I swear to God, I will repay it within two days. Please help me.

Hello…. bro……why the hell are you running away…. hey stop!