Word Power
Posted by LMReviewsDec 6
Welcome back!
I’ve mentioned before that I am a little magazine obsessed. I love books too, but there is just something about a good magazine that I just love. When I want to get a quick info fix filled with interesting insights, pictures, and stats, a magazine really satisfies. ( Yes, like a Snickers bar).
The subject of this post was spurred by a small magazine filler from this month’s issue of Women’s Health magazine. The filler is entitled, “Pretty Words” reminds us that words are not just words.
According to the article which sites a study in the journal Psychological Science where study participants were hooked up to a machine to measure the activity of the facial muscles we use when we smile or frown. The participants facial reactions were recorded when they were asked to read a series of emotion verbs such as frown, cry, laugh etc. The result was that happy verbs caused a response in the subjects’ smile muscles while the sad ones activated the frown muscles’ response.
As writers and those who love to read already know, language does physically resonate with us and it makes an impression on how we feel, according to the study’s coauthor G. Sermin, Ph.D., of Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
As I think of the ways that we use words to elicit a response or to provoke action in others, for example, greeting cards, research studies, wedding invitations, letters of complaint, and too many other forms of word communication that too many to mention, it definitely weakens the idea that words are harmless. Words can console and they can also start arguments and even wars. It’s our words and our thoughts that lead to our positive or negative actions.
Words trigger memories and they lend to a variety of interpretations and connotations. How words are used and interpreted go far beyond the words meaning. Our own culture and environment also play a role. Put in this context, words do indeed become very powerful.
The next time you speak or write, know the power of your words.
