Skip to content

Mosteller-Wallace study

Definition

The 1964 statistical analysis by Frederick Mosteller and David Wallace that attributed all twelve disputed Federalist Papers to Madison using function-word frequency distributions. The study is the founding empirical demonstration of function-word-based stylometry.

Related terms

Daubert standard
The US federal evidentiary standard (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 1993) requiring that expert testimony be based on scientifically valid methods with...
Federalist Papers
A collection of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the pseudonym 'Publius' in 1787-1788, advocating for...
Literary attribution
The scholarly practice of assigning an anonymous or disputed text to a specific author, typically in a historical context. Differs from forensic...
Pseudonymous attribution
The identification of the real author behind a pen name or anonymous publication. When the attributed author is living and has chosen...

Explained in

Your journey to becoming a forensic professional starts here.

Practice with mock tests, learn from structured notes, and get your questions answered by a global forensic community, all in one place.