Connotations matter. We are continually reminded of the importance of word choice — by our English teachers who distinguish between “slender” and “skinny,” by our parents who scold us for cursing, by our friends whom we argue with over misunderstandings. But knowing that, we still exaggerate. We say that we’re “bored to death” when we’re studying or that we’re “devastated” when we missed an assignment. While there may be some who experience true feelings of devastation, for most, this is not the case. Hyperbolic statements can even be dangerous, altering how we perceive ourselves, how we see the world and how we look at the future.
Many studies have focused on how language affects the way we interpret our surroundings. An Aug. 2010 New York Times article cited a study showing that the words we have in our native language inform how we orient ourselves, how we see objects and even how we store memories. People from cultures that communicate directions geocentrically — in terms of north, south, east and west — for example, think and see differently than people from cultures that communicate directions egocentrically — in terms of in front, behind, right and left. Evidently, the vocabulary that we use, often with little awareness, deeply influences how we process information.
The words we use and the emotional response they elicit also play a large role in our judgment. In 1974, researchers Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer published a study called “Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction: An Example of the Interaction Between Language and Memory,” in which they described a car accident with various verbs — smashed, collided, bumped, hit and contacted — and asked students to estimate how fast the cars were going when the accident occurred. When researchers said the cars “contacted” each other, the students estimated, on average, that the vehicles were going 31.8 mph. When asked the same question, but with the word “smashed” instead of “contacted,” however, students estimated the vehicles were going at an average of 40.5 mph — a significant difference. A change in just one word has a clear effect on how we visualize a situation.
Understanding the importance of a word’s connotations is, of course, no new idea. For millennia, skilled orators, from Socrates to President Obama, have been using word choice to influence how we think. Advertisers routinely manipulate words — they know that people are more likely to buy cleaning products that kill “99.9 percent of germs” than cleaning products that are merely “antibacterial.” As long as humans have had language, there has been the possibility of winning others over by selectively choosing certain phrases.
If something as simple as word choice can profoundly change how we see things, why don’t we manipulate it more to benefit ourselves?
The most relevant example for students may be the idea of “midterms.” Most classes will have multiple “midterms” in a term, completely defying the definition of the word — a test given in the middle of the term. The word “midterm” has a much more stressful connotation, inherently implying that you have only one chance to do well. For most people, it is connected to negative memories — think back to high school when midterms required anxiety-inducing preparation and midterm grades were weighted more heavily than usual tests. To most students, in college or otherwise, the word “midterm” instills a much more dreadful feeling than simply “test.”
We should start calling midterms by their proper name — tests. The word “test” is not as loaded as the word “midterm.” It sounds like a less overwhelming task, and it’s more accurate. Ultimately, most of our tests are not midterms, and calling them such, especially when they don’t occur anywhere near the middle of the term, adds an unnecessary sense of panic to our academic lives.
There are plenty of other linguistic choices beyond just “midterm” that we should reexamine. Why not call a “failure” a setback? Why not talk about “the worst day ever” as a rough day? The takeaway is clear — we can change how we look at the world by changing how we describe the world. Choosing our words wisely has the power to make our outlook more upbeat, boosting our motivation while reducing stress.
