Authorship attribution has proven to be a hugely useful science both for scholarship as well as public policy (Juola, 2013; Juola, 2015). Scholars are empowered with a tool to help analyze writings of uncertain origin. This can help not only contemporary scholars resolve questions about written documents (Brooks, 2013), but can also help scholars of traditional culture examine, for example, narratives and see what stylistic features correspond with what specific traditions(which may also help place uncertain narratives in their proper context).
Public policy aspects include the use of stylometry for forensic purposes. In English, for example, stylometry has been used to detect attempted fraud (McMenamin, 2011), to identify refugees (Juola, 2013), and even to solve murders (Chaski, 2005; Grant, 2013). Improving the evidentiary system in indiginous-speaking regions can help stabilize and improve the rule of law as well as providing increased safety and security via improved law enforcement and reduced crime for hundreds of millions of people. It may also help improve economic stability and trade, thus increasing the standard of living in less developed nations [for example, by helping detect and prevent fraud (McMenamin, 2011) or industrial espionage (Coulthard, 2013), making these nations a safer place to do business].In addition, other applications of stylometry are allowing non-intrusive medical and psychological diagnoses (Noecker Jr et al., 2013; Noecker and Juola, 2014; Juola, Vinsick, and Ryan 2016), potentially improving access to health care in an area of the world where infrastructure is problematic. It can even improve computer security (Juola et al., 2013) in these region, again improving commerce and the standard of living.