Predicting if a borrower will pay you back

I saw an interesting article about a study on evaluating borrowers. A big part of the research focused around the language used by borrowers while they were applying for the loans, and they found that different words and phrases correlated with loans getting payed back and loans going into default.

You might think—or at least hope—that a polite, openly religious person who gives his word would be among the most likely to pay back a loan. But in fact this is not the case. This type of person, the data shows, is less likely than average to make good on their debt.

Here are the phrases used in loan applications by people most likely to pay them back: debt-free, lower interest rate, after-tax, minimum payment, graduate.

And here are the phrases used by those least likely to pay back their loans: God, promise, will pay, thank you, hospital.

I think that the common attribute in the words correlating with paying back the loan is that they're based in technicals and logic, whereas the other set of phrases are geared towards evoking emotion. The results, IMO, have more to do with human nature than what comes to mind with traditional credit analysis. What do you guys think?

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