Pronoun Use Reflects a Rising U.S. Individualism

August 15, 2013 HBR's The Daily Stat Between 1960 and 2008, the number of uses of "I" or "me" increased 42%, and instances of "we" or "us" declined 10%, in hundreds of thousands of American books, both fiction and nonfiction, studied by Jean M. Twenge of San Diego State University and a team of researchers. The rise of the singular pronoun and the decline of the plural are consistent with what has been described as an increasing level of individuality in American culture over the last half-century, the researchers say.