Words Matter
“When we think we are using language, language is using us. As linguist Dwight Bollinger put it (employing a military metaphor), language is like a loaded gun: It can be fired intentionally but it can wound or kill just as surely when fired accidentally. The terms in which we talk about something shape the way we think about it-and even what we see.
The power of words to shape perception has been proven by researchers in controlled experiments. Psychologists Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer, for example, found that the terms in which people are asked to recall something affect what they recall. The researchers showed subjects a film of two cars colliding, then asked how fast the cars were going; one week later, they asked whether there had been any broken glass. Some subjects were asked, “About how fast were the cars going when they bumped into each other?” Others were asked, “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” Those who read the question with the verb “smashed” “estimated that the cars were going faster. They were also more likely to “remember” having seen broken glass. (There wasn’t any.)
This is how language works. It invisibly molds our way of thinking about people, actions, and the world around us. Military metaphors train us to think about-and see-everything in terms of fighting, conflict, and war. This perspective then limits our imaginations when we consider what we can do about situations we would like to understand or change.”
Tannen, Deborah, “The Argument Culture, (P 14)