Small Words Impress Smart People
"The pundits are likely right: write clearly and simply if you can, and you’ll be more likely to be thought of as intelligent."
For years, I've been trying to figure out why I cringe when I hear big words in places where small ones would work. My feeling has been that a big word is often used to impress or to compensate for a lack of confidence. It feels even worse when the big word is not exactly correct. Far worse. Sometimes to the point of "game over".
It has struck me as a "stress response": The more stressful the interaction, the larger and less correct the word selection gets. I've done it myself, though for some reason, my more common stress response is to s l o w d o w n and start using smaller, simpler words. I'd guess this was a random experiment on my part, some time in my past, and it must have produced better results than talking fast and using the largest words that came to mind.
Daniel M. Oppenheimer (Princeton University) reported in his Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly that "contrary to prevailing wisdom, increasing the complexity of a text does not cause an essay’s author to seem more intelligent. In fact, the opposite appears to be true."
He studied written communication, created to influence or persuade smart people. I think his findings apply to oral communication as well.
So the next time you are trying to persuade a smart person of something, or simply communicate an idea clearly, remember that:
"the negative consequences of needless complexity were shown in widely disparate domains (personal statements, sociology dissertation abstracts and philosophical essays), across different types of judgements (acceptance decisions and intelligence ratings), and using distinct paradigms (active word replacement and translation differences). The effect was demonstrated regardless of the quality of the original essay or prior beliefs about a text’s quality. All in all, the effect is extremely robust: needless complexity leads to negative evaluations."
I mean:
Use small words. Keep the discussion concise. And your ideas will have maximum impact.
Or use big words, or too many words, and even if you have a better idea to communicate, your message will be at a disadvantage. And you will sound dumb.
(reference:
For years, I've been trying to figure out why I cringe when I hear big words in places where small ones would work. My feeling has been that a big word is often used to impress or to compensate for a lack of confidence. It feels even worse when the big word is not exactly correct. Far worse. Sometimes to the point of "game over".
It has struck me as a "stress response": The more stressful the interaction, the larger and less correct the word selection gets. I've done it myself, though for some reason, my more common stress response is to s l o w d o w n and start using smaller, simpler words. I'd guess this was a random experiment on my part, some time in my past, and it must have produced better results than talking fast and using the largest words that came to mind.
Daniel M. Oppenheimer (Princeton University) reported in his Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly that "contrary to prevailing wisdom, increasing the complexity of a text does not cause an essay’s author to seem more intelligent. In fact, the opposite appears to be true."
He studied written communication, created to influence or persuade smart people. I think his findings apply to oral communication as well.
So the next time you are trying to persuade a smart person of something, or simply communicate an idea clearly, remember that:
"the negative consequences of needless complexity were shown in widely disparate domains (personal statements, sociology dissertation abstracts and philosophical essays), across different types of judgements (acceptance decisions and intelligence ratings), and using distinct paradigms (active word replacement and translation differences). The effect was demonstrated regardless of the quality of the original essay or prior beliefs about a text’s quality. All in all, the effect is extremely robust: needless complexity leads to negative evaluations."
I mean:
Use small words. Keep the discussion concise. And your ideas will have maximum impact.
Or use big words, or too many words, and even if you have a better idea to communicate, your message will be at a disadvantage. And you will sound dumb.
(reference: