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Businessweek brings us news of How to Get Ahead by Speaking Vaguely. Projecting power is incredibly simple: just communicate in abstractions. Details convey weakness.
In one of the seven experiments, participants read quotes from a politician who described an earthquake as killing 120 and injuring 400; later, when he simply said it was a national tragedy, subjects thought he was a better leader.
An author of the study, Cheryl J. Wakslak (University of Southern California), cautions however against meaningless business jargon — words such as "ideaate" and "deliverables" that some workers resort to when trying to seem impressive. "Being completely vague will just make you sound stupid," she explains. "Bulls———is best when it has a kernel of truth in it."
The report was published this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the full report is available at Using Abstract Language Signals Power (pdf)
(Score: 0, Troll) by moondoctor on Monday July 21 2014, @03:00AM
uhhh... nice story, but not sure how it relates to detail-lacking communication conveying power.
in this context, i don't give a fuck about your gym bullshit, or your chatty co-workers. if the article had been about irritating chatty co-workers your comment only points out the obvious and still isn't particularly relevant.
also; take your misogynist bullshit and go away.
p.s. this is about interpersonal communication and power, not journalism.
(yes, i know, don't feed the trolls. sorry couldn't help myself!)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 21 2014, @04:42AM
> not sure how it relates to detail-lacking communication conveying power.
It is a demonstration of how giving you all kinds of details can make you think someone is a total moron.