Verbal insults can cause a 'mini smack to the face' reaction: Study

Every single one of us land up in situations where we are insulted and more often than not it affects us really badly According to a new study listening to that very insult feel like a little smack in the face regardless of the kind of circumstance during which it has been said A group of researchers using electroencephalography EEG and skin conductance recordings discovered that the shortterm effects of repeated verbal insults were compared to those of repeated positive or neutral evaluations according to a new studyThe findings of the study were published in the journal Frontiers in CommunicationThe findings provide us with a onceinalifetime opportunity to examine the relationship between emotion and languageHumans are a highly social species We rely on everchanging cooperation dynamics and interpersonal relations to survive and thrive Words have a big role to play in these relations as they are tools used to understand interpersonal behaviour As such words can hurt but we know little about how the impact of words comes about as someone processes an insultThe exact way in which words can deliver their offensive emotionally negative payload at the moment these words are being read or heard is not yet wellunderstood said corresponding author Dr Marijn Struiksma of Utrecht UniversityBecause insults pose a threat to our reputation and against our self they provide a unique opportunity to research the interface between language and emotion Struiksma continued Understanding what an insulting expression does to people as it unfolds and why is of considerable importance to psycholinguists interested in how language moves people but also to others who wish to understand the details of social behaviourEEG and skin conductanceStruiksma and her colleagues wanted to examine whether processing verbal insults is less sensitive to repetition than compliments and if so which cognitive stages are implicated in the adaptation and which arentWe assume that verbal insults trigger a cascade of rapidly consecutive or overlapping processing effects and that different parts of that cascade might be differently affected by repetition with some of them rapidly wearing off and others remaining strongly responsive for a long time explained StruiksmaEEG and skin conductance electrodes were applied to 79 female participants They then read a series of repeated statements that realised three different speech acts insults for example Linda is horrible compliments for example Linda is impressive and neutral factually correct descriptive statements for example Linda is DutchTo examine whether the impact of the words depended on who the statement was about half of the three sets of statements used the participants own name and the other half used somebody elses The experiment involved no real interaction between the participants and another human The participants were told that the statements were being said by three different menMini slaps to the faceThe researchers found that even under unnatural conditions a lab setting no real human interactions and statements coming from fictitious people verbal insults can still get at you no matter who the insult is about and continue to do so even after repetitionSpecifically the EEG showed an early insult effect in P2 amplitude that was very robust over repetition and did not depend on who the insult was about P2 is a waveform component of the eventrelated potential ERP measured at the human scalpIn the setting of the experiment the insults were perceived as mini slaps to the face explained Struiksma Our study shows that in a psycholinguistic laboratory experiment without real interaction between speakers insults deliver lexical mini slaps in the face such that the strongly negative evaluative words involved that a participant reads automatically grab attention during lexical retrieval regardless of how often that retrieval occursYet the study only shows the effects of insults in an artificial setting The participants will have recognised the insults as such but as decontextualized statements the actual emotional effects of insults lose power Studying insults in a real setting remains ethically challengingEven so the results show an increased sensitivity of our brains to negative words compared to positive words An insult immediately captures our brains attention as the emotional meaning of insults is retrieved from longterm memory The compliments elicited a less strong P2 effect showing a negativity bias in the amount of attention that is automatically allocated to negative versus positive interpersonal situationsAlso Read Consuming bananas avocados salmon may reduce highsalt effect in women StudyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content 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