According to new research conducted by Nottingham Trent University, it’s possible to identify the author of an email by analyzing small sequences of words they use. In fact, by analyzing as little as two words, you could reveal the person’s identity.
In a new research, Dr. David Wright, who is an expert in forensic linguistics, examined thousands of emails from 12 employees from American company Enron, to show that it’s possible to identify someone by analyzing their emails. Using his technique which consists of analyzing small sequences of words, Dr. Wright was able to correctly identify authors 95% of the time.
The word sequences used were between two and six words long and pretty basic (e.g., “Please review and let’s discuss.”). Dr. Wright found that the way people join small words together is unique to them, so it’s entirely possible to identify anyone based on their writing. When people type emails, for example, they have no choice but to express their unique writing style which is influenced by their speech.
According to Dr. Wright, the repetitiveness of the certain phrases shows that a person has developed their own tried and tested method which works (get the job done), so they use it all the time. Being able to identify someone based on this may lead to “improving the reliability of evidence given to the courts, and ultimately the delivery of justice.”
Source:
Phys.org (https://phys.org/news/2017-10-small-words-email-reveal-person.html)
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