January 28, 2025 • 28 mins
The latest episode examines how the language we use can profoundly impact our perceptions, beliefs, and health. I discuss linguistic framing's role in media, politics, and personal health, emphasising the need for mindful communication.
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Credit for the music used in this podcast:
The Beat of Nature
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Fiona Kane (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast
.
I'm your host, Fiona Kane, andtoday I'm going to be talking
about language.
Again, I've talked aboutlanguage a lot, but I'm going to
be talking about it from alittle bit of a different angle.
So the language that we use andsort of the meanings of the
words and how that affects us.
So I'll probably link at theend in like the next on YouTube.
(00:25):
Anyway, I'll link there.
So if you're on YouTube it'llbe easy to find.
But if you just go throughyou'll find it as well as
another video that I've done onlanguage and I've done a few.
So if you go through you willfind them.
But essentially, today what I'mtalking about is I'm actually
going to be referring to a studyand this study is in the latest
(00:53):
issue of Psychological Sciencein the Public Interest.
Who knew that there was anissue of that?
But anyway, there is an issueof that and anyway, what they
did is they did a comprehensivereview of the framing effects of
it's about linguistic framing.
So about the way that weintroduce language to someone,
in the way we say something toaffect how they respond to it,
(01:15):
and I think this is a reallyinteresting one, just in general
from a society point of view,and obviously it has political
you know it affects politics andthat sort of thing, but also I
think that these things doaffect our health and well-being
.
So it's really important tounderstand how language affects
us.
So essentially they're talkingabout their deep concern about
(01:37):
how linguistic control inpopular media may affect our
lives.
And you know they said theauthor said we routinely use
words to try and influence whatother people are thinking,
feeling and doing, and that'sthe thing we sort of use
(01:58):
language to sort of, yeah,change someone's response to
something.
And so, instead of sitting herethe example sorry, I'm reading
through this for anyone who'swatching, but it's kind of
something that I have to readthrough part of and then I'll
just stop reading and start justtalking in general.
But first I'll talk about theuse of war metaphors, for
(02:19):
example generates an increasedsense of urgency when used to
describe an issue.
Generates an increased sense ofurgency when used to describe
an issue, so you might actuallydescribe terms that describe war
also shape our beliefs around aspecific topic.
So a previous study comparedthe impact of using the words
battle and journey to talk aboutcancer.
(02:42):
Participants who read the storyframed as a battle believed the
cancer diagnosis was more fatalthan those who read the story
framed as a journey.
So even just a different strainof framing cancer as a journey
or a battle made people believeit was worse in the case where
it was a battle than it was ajourney.
(03:04):
So just even the language canmake it feel like it's a worse
situation you're dealing with.
And so then they talked about Ican't just go through to the
next section so they were justtalking about different language
that we might use that can bemore inspirational, or language
(03:25):
that kind of overwhelms peopleand freaks people out, and that
is actually a really big thingin.
I certainly know in languagethat medical professionals use
with their patients.
I see a lot too when I go todoctor's appointments with
different relatives or even myown appointments, that it's one
of two things either I seesometimes medical people use
(03:46):
language that's quitefrightening, or I see them use
language that's that's quitewell, just that no one
understands.
So it's either I don't evenunderstand or it's language that
can be quite frightening.
I showed it at a doctor'soffice a few weeks ago and he
described the person's bloodtest results, a certain section
(04:09):
of the blood test results aboutas being deranged.
And this doctor is not englishis not his first language but I
thought, oh, you know, languagelike that can be really scary.
Uh, so I, I get what they'resaying about the different
language.
Uh, so, yeah, so they'retalking about the deeper
understanding of the psychologyof framing.
So how you frame something, thelanguage you put around
(04:31):
something Sorry, I'm gettingexcitable and bashing things and
everything's shaking thelanguage you put around
something is the framing andit's part of how we want people,
like I said, to perceive it.
So it's useful to be mindful ofthe words and phrases that we
use ourselves or that we use tograb attention from other people
.
And again, these are things I'vetalked about before, but just
(04:53):
in a different way.
So I've talked about it inregards to things like using,
like the why not to use things,the words like food addiction
and why that's a problem.
Or I've talked about it inregards to, instead of saying, I
have to, saying I get to or Ichoose to, things like that.
So it's just even just thelanguage that we use in
(05:16):
explaining something, or thelanguage of I am an emotional
eater or I sometimes emotionallyeat.
They're two very differentthings.
One is actually framing me asthe thing, the other is just
describing a behavior I dosometimes.
So all these language things,they matter, and these are all
things I have talked aboutbefore, so you'll see them in
(05:37):
previous episodes or listen tothem in previous episodes.
So, anyway, so just moving downfurther in this particular study
.
So what they have said isactually just hold on.
What I'll do is I'm just goingto pause.
I'll be back in a moment, justso I can find it.
Yeah, look.
(06:00):
So ultimately the paper wasjust talking about that if we
have a deeper level ofunderstanding of the way we
frame things and the language weuse to frame things, that we'll
have better communication andclearer kind of results of our
communication.
So it's kind of just thatgeneral gist.
Now where I wanted to talk aboutit, though as well, is in a few
(06:21):
other things, and some of this,I suppose, is slightly
political.
But my intention is not so muchabout the politics, just more
about the way the framingaffects our health.
You can choose whatever youwant to believe about the
politics, but it's just what I'mtrying to get at in here with.
What I'm about to talk to isabout the framing and how it
affects our physical and mentalhealth.
(06:42):
So there's a lot of situationsnow where I see and it's a
particular thing to be aware ofin the media so the media do
lots of framing of stuff to makepeople feel frightened to.
If you remember back to thetimes of lockdowns and all of
(07:03):
that sort of stuff, the crazylanguage that the media used and
the fear that they put intopeople and that kind of stuff,
it was just dreadful.
And in more recent times, likeother topics I can think of
where media are really thelanguage that they use is really
framing things is even when andagain, I'm not going to go into
(07:25):
politics here, just explainingit, so I'm not when you see
different news people talk about, even just say things like
Israel and Gaza, they will frameit in a way that supports their
belief.
Whichever side right.
So that supports their belief,whichever side right.
So you'll see, they will usevery definite language that
(07:49):
makes you know, in invertedcommas, their side look better
and their enemy look bad, andI've seen this language used on
both sides of that.
So that's the kind of thingthat happens in media.
So just be aware of that whenthings are being framed in that
way, because when it's sort ofthe language is, uh, if, if a
(08:12):
news reporter uses language likethese people are the victims
and these people are theoppressors and the bad guys in a
news item that's got two verydefinite sides and two very like
different opinions and whatever.
Just be aware that that newsreader is not being, um, that's
not news.
(08:32):
So there's a difference between.
So there are commentators whosejob is to talk about their
opinion, um, and that's onething, and you can choose to
listen to a commentator becauseyou do or don't like their
opinion or because you just wantto hear their opinion, so that
you can either agree with it,argue with it, whatever.
But then there are news.
(08:52):
There's news in journalism, andthere's journalists who make
out that they are telling newsand balanced stuff, but they
frame it in such a way that theyare very clearly partisan and
very clearly saying I believethis, I believe that whatever.
(09:13):
Now, that is a problem becauseI think it affects our health
too, because the way we hearthings or that we believe things
that aren't true.
And so another example would bein the whole kind of climate
change stuff, right, so whetheror not you believe that there's
a climate catastrophe or there'snot or whatever.
Whatever you do and don't,whatever your thoughts are
(09:34):
around that, the language thatpeople use in the media around
it, I don't think is helpful.
So, for example, I know that inrecent times, when you've looked
at reporting in the UK, whenthey're looking at reporting on
the news about the weather, theytalk about all of these heat
(09:56):
waves that they're going to haveand a heat wave is like it's
going to be 30 degrees or it'sgoing to be 32 degrees or
something Celsius, which inAustralia is very common, right,
as we have that all the time.
They talk about these things.
But what they've started doingis they colour in the map of all
of the UK red, you know, theydo red and they kind of do
(10:17):
flames and they do, you know.
And then they warn people thateveryone's going to die because
of you know, because it's goingto be so hot.
And while I recognize the needto explain to people facts about
what can happen to you in theheat and whether or not you need
to have more water and allthose things, I get all that, I
get that, but you can explainall of that in just a really
(10:40):
sensible way, but they're notdoing that.
They are trying to frightenpeople, and what this is is
these are people that wantpeople to think that the
planet's burning up andeveryone's about to die right
Now.
Again, you may believe that,you may not.
Whatever your opinion is yourbusiness.
However, when it's trying tofrighten the hell out of people
and you might say, oh well, youknow, if you frighten people,
(11:03):
they'll take action, but I don'tthink it works that way,
actually.
Um, I think it's quite theopposite that.
Um.
Anyway, I don't want to go intoall the politics, but yeah, I I
don't think.
Well, it hasn't worked.
Right, that hasn't worked.
Uh, people aren't.
That's just paralyzes people orputs them in a whole lot of
fear, or or has them railingagainst the wrong thing.
(11:25):
So there's a lot of people outthere taking action, but, like
you know, sticking yourself to aroad or something, or
destroying it, trying to destroya beautiful painting in an art
gallery that doesn't achieveanything.
So people are either goingloopy and doing stupid crap like
that or they're just really,really stressed and it's causing
(11:47):
them, it's affecting theirphysical or mental health and
causing them distress abouttheir lives and children.
I mean, it's one of the reasonswhy children are so depressed.
So that's another example.
Another example, you see, is I'mtouching all the hot topics
today, but in just things likewhere, um, in the trans issue as
(12:09):
well I'm not going to go intodetail in it in this podcast or
get uh super political about itbut there are people within that
issue who say there's agenocide.
There's a genocide of transpeople.
A genocide would indicate thatthere was people being murdered
(12:29):
everywhere and there's deadpeople everywhere, and that's
not the situation.
Now you might believe there'sinjustice, you might believe
that you don't agree with laws,there's a whole bunch of things,
but telling a whole group ofpeople that there's a genocide
when there's not a genocide isnot helpful.
And the same goes even for thelast election in the US, where
people were saying that Nazisand Hitler and stuff like that
(12:57):
and even now I've been calledsome interesting names along
those lines as well those nameshave actually lost their meaning
because people are just callingpeople.
They disagree with Nazis, andyou know.
So people have just takenlanguage that they obviously
don't understand or don't wantto understand, or they've
(13:18):
regardless, they've tried tore-change language to suit
themselves, and so what peopleare doing essentially.
Essentially and this is on bothsides of politics variations of
this might be happening, so I'mnot saying it's a one-sided
thing, but it's just a reallybig thing.
At the moment, there's a lot ofloud people on on one side
using particular language and uh, and it's just all of this big
(13:39):
language to frighten people andto make people think, you know,
like there was after the USelection, I think there was a
trans person who suicidedbecause they literally they'd
set it up that, oh my God, likeif Trump gets in, they're going
to line people up and shoot them, kind of thing, and they were
literally saying that kind ofstuff right Now.
(14:00):
That's obviously not true.
That's, you know, hyperbole.
So you can say that you don'tagree with a person's rhetoric
or that you don't like the lawsthat they might be able to bring
in, and you can bring peopletogether to say, well, let's go
and protest, or let's go andvote this person, or let's go
(14:21):
and support this bill orwhatever to fix or change
whatever the thing is thatyou're concerned about.
Absolutely.
You can have concerns aboutthose things and beliefs about
those things, and obviously youknow human rights and beliefs
about human rights andsupporting it all that fantastic
, you know, but basicallygetting people in their mind,
(14:42):
like I saw, people talking totheir children on the day of the
election, uh, and freakingtheir children out the children.
There's one woman who videoedherself telling the children
that trump had won, and had herchildren in tears and saying, oh
, it's going to be different atschool today, you know, as if
him winning, the next daythey're going to go to school
again and be lined up and shotor something.
(15:03):
You know it's ridiculous, right?
So language, the way peopleframe things, whether it be in
the media, or whether it be theway we frame things for
ourselves or the way we framethings when we talk to other
people we need to have a realthink about it, because what we
are doing is we're usinglanguage that makes people think
they're more victim than whatthey are.
(15:24):
We're using language that makespeople who aren't victims
victims and who actually takestheir agency away from people
who are victims and people whoare real victims and not victims
, like we've messed it up, right?
So, essentially, languagereally does matter and what
we're doing is we're using a lotof language at the moment that
(15:44):
I think is physically andemotionally very harmful to
people.
And again I will say, this isnot just about politics, I think
it's just, to a certain extentit is on both sides of politics,
but it is quite extreme on theleft at the moment.
The language, the rhetoric, andI think that seeing the levels
(16:05):
while you only have to see thevideos and stuff on TikTok
levels of mental health inpeople who are in that situation
, tells me that this isn'thealthy and it's not good for
them, right?
So I just want to encourage youto think about language.
Think about when people areusing language on TV reports or
things like that, or not justlanguage, but it might be colors
(16:26):
, where they're rating thingsand putting things in bright red
with flames or whatever.
Just know that language andvisuals and things like that
they're all used as manipulationtools and just have an
awareness around it.
If you have an awareness aroundit whether it's coming from
left, right, whoever, whateveryou can kind of go.
Okay, I understand in thissituation this person is trying
(16:48):
to manipulate an outcome from meor manipulate a particular
emotion from me and at least ifyou understand that and if you
kind of just accept that it'shappening all around, you can
observe it.
And one of two things it willeither affect whether or not you
believe that person or you'llbuy into a certain story or just
at least understanding thatperson.
If they're talking in that way,they're not a news person or a
(17:10):
journalist, they're acommentator.
There's a difference.
And commentators are fine.
I'm a commentator, I commentate, but you're just going to be
honest about the fact thatyou're commentating.
So when I'm talking about healthand wellness from a nutrition
point of view and it's maybesomething that I've studied and
I know a lot about I will sortof say, like as a health
(17:31):
professional, I believe blah,blah, blah.
When I talk more about what Ithink about things or politics
or things like that, I'm veryclear that, hey, I'm just
sprouting my opinion based on mylife, and both is fine, but you
just could be really honestabout it, right.
So just be aware of who istalking to you and what you're
hearing and how you respond toit.
But the other thing, too, isjust be aware of how it affects
(17:52):
your mental health, whatever itis, wherever it's coming from,
and maybe your physical andmental health is being affected
by hearing certain messages,whatever they are, by certain
people.
So there might be a newsreaderthat you're watching or a
podcast you listen to orsomething else a group of people
that you talk to, and it mightbe harmful to your health to be
talking to those people ifthey're using this kind of
(18:12):
language.
So I think it's reasonable andwhat I'm not talking about is
not is not exposing yourself topeople with different opinions,
because I actually think it'sreally healthy to be exposed to
people with different opinions.
I think that we all need thatand it is really good to hear,
well, what does the other sidethink and why do they think it,
and that helps you strengthenyour argument or maybe change
your argument or maybe changeyour viewpoint altogether.
(18:34):
Whatever, it is great, as longas people who are discussing it
are discussing it in good faithand people aren't using these
framing techniques where theyuse this language.
And another example of thisframing techniques, just to give
you a bit of an idea this iskind of like look, a lawyer
could explain this a whole lotbetter than what I can, but just
(18:54):
even like where they say likeleading the witness or whatever
right.
So, for example, if there'sbeen and this was there, was
there's been studies done onthis, I can't, at the top of my
head quote what the studies areand stuff.
But there's been studies doneon this.
So they did one particular studywhere they had a whole bunch of
people witness a car accidentand what they did is afterwards
(19:19):
they spoke to them allseparately and they used
different language to frame theaccident.
And then what they did is theygot people to tell them like,
how, like did they think thatthe car was speeding, and on all
these different facts about theaccident.
So what they found is that whenthey used the word I think the
word was smash If they called ita car smash, people thought
(19:44):
that they saw glass on theground.
So they thought that there wasshattered glass.
Because you hear the word smash, you think smash glass, you
think glass or plastic stuff,whatever, but smashed stuff on
the ground right.
And also, when they used theword smash, people thought that
the car was speeding.
Now, with the same car accident, when they just used I don't
(20:07):
know if they called it incidentaccident or but some other term
that wasn't smash, people didn'tthink the car was speeding and
didn't think that there wasglass on the road.
And that actually wasn't glasson the road, I don't think.
But if they use the term smash,people believed they'd seen it
right.
So that's an example of what Imean by kind of like the leading
, the witness or the framing is,if you want someone to believe
(20:33):
that what you're talking about,whoever you're talking about, is
the victim, is the perpetrator,is the whatever, whatever the
language you use around it, soyou could just report the facts
about.
You know, this is the weatherand these are the strategies
that you use.
You know it's a bit hotter thanusual in England.
You know that's fine, but it'sjust a bit hotter than usual.
Hey, drink plenty of water.
(20:53):
Maybe stay out of the sunshinebetween these hours.
You'll be right, mate.
And look, hey, if you don'thave air con or whatever, maybe
go and spend time at your localshopping mall.
Or in Australia we'd have RSLclubs, whatever it is, pub,
wherever they've got airconditioning or where it's cool
or whatever, right, so you coulddo that.
Or you could sort of paint thewhole map in bright red and
(21:16):
flames and tell people that areall going to die.
So you get the gist of are allgoing to die.
You know, um, so you get.
You get the gist of let howlanguage people use language to
frame things, and so it's usedin politics.
It's also used in health.
Uh, when people are talkingabout, uh, you know, meat and
and um and saturated fat andthat kind of stuff, people use
(21:37):
all sorts of language where theyframe things in a certain way.
Certainly any language wherepeople are talking about vegan
versus meat kind of thing onboth sides, you can sometimes
hear the framing where peopleare kind of framing in a way
that supports their argument,right and framing.
(22:00):
And actually the other thingtoo is that what we do is that
if we believe a certain thing.
So what's happened in this isI've talked about this in other
episodes, so I won't go intodetail here but because we've
spent so long demonizingsaturated fat and meat, now a
lot of people just assume it'sreally bad.
So what you'll see is in a film.
So I don't know how many filmsI have seen where they're
(22:23):
talking about bacon and eggs andthey're talking about them as
heart attack food.
Right, and you know that's.
I wouldn't class them as heartattack food and everything
depends on dose and whatever,but I particularly would not
class eggs as heart attack food.
I think processed meats havetheir challenges, but in meat in
general is referred to as heartattack, food in movies and TV
shows and eggs.
(22:43):
They talk about eggs andpeople's cholesterol and heart
attack and all that, which iscompletely incorrect.
But that language, now that's aframing that we now use in TV
comedy, in TV series, movies,whatever.
That's a framing that is usednow, which is an incorrect
framing.
But it's a framing of, like anutrition, you know, fact,
(23:06):
inverted commas.
That is not true, but it's justso set in our system that
that's what we do.
The same is now that every timeit's a hot day, it's because
it's climate change and blah,blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
So you've got to be aware ofthe framing that we put into
things and once we decide thatwe essentially we want people to
(23:27):
believe a certain thing, we usea certain framing.
So it's certainly done innutrition, it is done in
politics, it is done in manythings.
So just have an awareness aroundthat.
If you have an awareness aroundthat and if you listen to when
people talk whether it's anewsreader, a podcaster, whether
it's me, whoever it is justlistened for the emotive words
that people use and kind of go,oh, that's interesting, that
person's using emotive words totry to get a certain reaction
(23:49):
from me and if their words seemto be like sort of hyperbolic,
it's like, okay, I get that, itmatters, but that word is a big
word for that situation, right?
So just I want you to just takea step back, notice your own
language, but notice languagethat's being used towards you,
(24:10):
and whether it be from healtheducators, about politics, about
whatever, just notice language.
It's a really important thingand you might see a lot of this.
Actually, I think I'm going todo another episode, a little bit
about office politics andlanguage and stuff like that.
But be very aware of howlanguage that people use,
because people will frame thingsin such a way as to get
(24:32):
whatever result they want, andsometimes they're completely
lying and it's completelyincorrect.
Or sometimes what they'resaying the substance might be
correct, but they will use thelanguage like if they're
reporting on, like I was talkingabout before, something in a
war, they will frame it or usewords to give you the idea of
(24:53):
who they think is the enemy orthe oppressed, or oppressor,
whatever right.
And you hear it a lot thesedays because there's big
oppressed, oppressor narrativeseverywhere.
It's a sort of crazy stupidstuff that we do these days, and
so you will hear, all the time,people will be letting you know
who they think the oppressedand the oppressor are, in
(25:14):
whatever situation, and theywill be framing it in a certain
way.
So I just wanted to point outthat happens a lot.
You may or may not agree withwhat people are saying not
saying whatever but I just wantyou to notice the framing,
notice the emotive language,have an awareness around it, and
that will just help you kind ofsometimes, like just also step
back from it a little bit andkind of go oh, that person's
(25:35):
just trying to freak me out,right, which is what a lot of
people got to over, sort ofCOVID not saying that COVID, it
was not a serious situation andpeople didn't die, and all of
that, because of course it wasand all these terrible things
happened.
However, the language around itagain, it kind of got a bit
crazy on sort of ultimately onboth sides, but the language
around it got super crazy andvery clearly people were trying
(26:01):
to very clearly and they'veadmitted it since and it's been
very clear, but very clearlypeople were trying to manipulate
you.
So just notice when people aretrying to manipulate you one way
or the other, so that you cankind of take a bit of a step
back from it and go okay, thesubstance of what the person
says you may or may not think istrue, you may or may not agree
(26:23):
with them, but hey, they'rereally trying to manipulate me.
If they're trying that hard tomanipulate me, do I need to have
a bit of a closer look at it?
And you know just kind of wellI suppose what I'm trying to say
is stay curious, notice andalso notice how that framing and
that language affects yourphysical and mental health.
So then you can decide whereyou do and don't want to get
(26:46):
your information from.
So anyway, I hope that's.
I know it's a bit confusing,but I hope that makes sense.
And please, now I'd love tohear your feedback.
And, like I said there's, thewhole point of this wasn't to be
political per se, but just topoint out in situations where
this stuff is being used.
And, like I acknowledged before, it's not just one side that
(27:07):
uses all sorts of differentthings, or one side of anything,
whether it's politics orwhatever, it is right.
It's just a human thing that weuse, we manipulate and we are
all guilty to a certain extentof manipulating and using
different language to favor thething that we believe in or
don't believe in, or whateverthe situation is.
Anyway, I hope that you enjoyedthat.
(27:30):
You got something out of that,and happy for you to give me any
feedback.
Again, I'm happy to have alwayshappy to have conversations in
good faith.
I'm always happy to haveconversations in good faith, but
only if you want to haveconversations in good faith.
Anyway, like subscribe, pleasereview in iTunes and all the
(27:50):
usual places, comment on Rumbleor YouTube and I'll talk to you
all again next week.
Thank you, bye.
Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast
.
I'm your host, Fiona Kane, andtoday I'm going to be talking
about language.
Again, I've talked aboutlanguage a lot, but I'm going to
be talking about it from alittle bit of a different angle.
So the language that we use andsort of the meanings of the
words and how that affects us.
So I'll probably link at theend in like the next on YouTube.
(00:25):
Anyway, I'll link there.
So if you're on YouTube it'llbe easy to find.
But if you just go throughyou'll find it as well as
another video that I've done onlanguage and I've done a few.
So if you go through you willfind them.
But essentially, today what I'mtalking about is I'm actually
going to be referring to a studyand this study is in the latest
(00:53):
issue of Psychological Sciencein the Public Interest.
Who knew that there was anissue of that?
But anyway, there is an issueof that and anyway, what they
did is they did a comprehensivereview of the framing effects of
it's about linguistic framing.
So about the way that weintroduce language to someone,
in the way we say something toaffect how they respond to it,
(01:15):
and I think this is a reallyinteresting one, just in general
from a society point of view,and obviously it has political
you know it affects politics andthat sort of thing, but also I
think that these things doaffect our health and well-being
.
So it's really important tounderstand how language affects
us.
So essentially they're talkingabout their deep concern about
(01:37):
how linguistic control inpopular media may affect our
lives.
And you know they said theauthor said we routinely use
words to try and influence whatother people are thinking,
feeling and doing, and that'sthe thing we sort of use
(01:58):
language to sort of, yeah,change someone's response to
something.
And so, instead of sitting herethe example sorry, I'm reading
through this for anyone who'swatching, but it's kind of
something that I have to readthrough part of and then I'll
just stop reading and start justtalking in general.
But first I'll talk about theuse of war metaphors, for
(02:19):
example generates an increasedsense of urgency when used to
describe an issue.
Generates an increased sense ofurgency when used to describe
an issue, so you might actuallydescribe terms that describe war
also shape our beliefs around aspecific topic.
So a previous study comparedthe impact of using the words
battle and journey to talk aboutcancer.
(02:42):
Participants who read the storyframed as a battle believed the
cancer diagnosis was more fatalthan those who read the story
framed as a journey.
So even just a different strainof framing cancer as a journey
or a battle made people believeit was worse in the case where
it was a battle than it was ajourney.
(03:04):
So just even the language canmake it feel like it's a worse
situation you're dealing with.
And so then they talked about Ican't just go through to the
next section so they were justtalking about different language
that we might use that can bemore inspirational, or language
(03:25):
that kind of overwhelms peopleand freaks people out, and that
is actually a really big thingin.
I certainly know in languagethat medical professionals use
with their patients.
I see a lot too when I go todoctor's appointments with
different relatives or even myown appointments, that it's one
of two things either I seesometimes medical people use
(03:46):
language that's quitefrightening, or I see them use
language that's that's quitewell, just that no one
understands.
So it's either I don't evenunderstand or it's language that
can be quite frightening.
I showed it at a doctor'soffice a few weeks ago and he
described the person's bloodtest results, a certain section
(04:09):
of the blood test results aboutas being deranged.
And this doctor is not englishis not his first language but I
thought, oh, you know, languagelike that can be really scary.
Uh, so I, I get what they'resaying about the different
language.
Uh, so, yeah, so they'retalking about the deeper
understanding of the psychologyof framing.
So how you frame something, thelanguage you put around
(04:31):
something Sorry, I'm gettingexcitable and bashing things and
everything's shaking thelanguage you put around
something is the framing andit's part of how we want people,
like I said, to perceive it.
So it's useful to be mindful ofthe words and phrases that we
use ourselves or that we use tograb attention from other people
.
And again, these are things I'vetalked about before, but just
(04:53):
in a different way.
So I've talked about it inregards to things like using,
like the why not to use things,the words like food addiction
and why that's a problem.
Or I've talked about it inregards to, instead of saying, I
have to, saying I get to or Ichoose to, things like that.
So it's just even just thelanguage that we use in
(05:16):
explaining something, or thelanguage of I am an emotional
eater or I sometimes emotionallyeat.
They're two very differentthings.
One is actually framing me asthe thing, the other is just
describing a behavior I dosometimes.
So all these language things,they matter, and these are all
things I have talked aboutbefore, so you'll see them in
(05:37):
previous episodes or listen tothem in previous episodes.
So, anyway, so just moving downfurther in this particular study
.
So what they have said isactually just hold on.
What I'll do is I'm just goingto pause.
I'll be back in a moment, justso I can find it.
Yeah, look.
(06:00):
So ultimately the paper wasjust talking about that if we
have a deeper level ofunderstanding of the way we
frame things and the language weuse to frame things, that we'll
have better communication andclearer kind of results of our
communication.
So it's kind of just thatgeneral gist.
Now where I wanted to talk aboutit, though as well, is in a few
(06:21):
other things, and some of this,I suppose, is slightly
political.
But my intention is not so muchabout the politics, just more
about the way the framingaffects our health.
You can choose whatever youwant to believe about the
politics, but it's just what I'mtrying to get at in here with.
What I'm about to talk to isabout the framing and how it
affects our physical and mentalhealth.
(06:42):
So there's a lot of situationsnow where I see and it's a
particular thing to be aware ofin the media so the media do
lots of framing of stuff to makepeople feel frightened to.
If you remember back to thetimes of lockdowns and all of
(07:03):
that sort of stuff, the crazylanguage that the media used and
the fear that they put intopeople and that kind of stuff,
it was just dreadful.
And in more recent times, likeother topics I can think of
where media are really thelanguage that they use is really
framing things is even when andagain, I'm not going to go into
(07:25):
politics here, just explainingit, so I'm not when you see
different news people talk about, even just say things like
Israel and Gaza, they will frameit in a way that supports their
belief.
Whichever side right.
So that supports their belief,whichever side right.
So you'll see, they will usevery definite language that
(07:49):
makes you know, in invertedcommas, their side look better
and their enemy look bad, andI've seen this language used on
both sides of that.
So that's the kind of thingthat happens in media.
So just be aware of that whenthings are being framed in that
way, because when it's sort ofthe language is, uh, if, if a
(08:12):
news reporter uses language likethese people are the victims
and these people are theoppressors and the bad guys in a
news item that's got two verydefinite sides and two very like
different opinions and whatever.
Just be aware that that newsreader is not being, um, that's
not news.
(08:32):
So there's a difference between.
So there are commentators whosejob is to talk about their
opinion, um, and that's onething, and you can choose to
listen to a commentator becauseyou do or don't like their
opinion or because you just wantto hear their opinion, so that
you can either agree with it,argue with it, whatever.
But then there are news.
(08:52):
There's news in journalism, andthere's journalists who make
out that they are telling newsand balanced stuff, but they
frame it in such a way that theyare very clearly partisan and
very clearly saying I believethis, I believe that whatever.
(09:13):
Now, that is a problem becauseI think it affects our health
too, because the way we hearthings or that we believe things
that aren't true.
And so another example would bein the whole kind of climate
change stuff, right, so whetheror not you believe that there's
a climate catastrophe or there'snot or whatever.
Whatever you do and don't,whatever your thoughts are
(09:34):
around that, the language thatpeople use in the media around
it, I don't think is helpful.
So, for example, I know that inrecent times, when you've looked
at reporting in the UK, whenthey're looking at reporting on
the news about the weather, theytalk about all of these heat
(09:56):
waves that they're going to haveand a heat wave is like it's
going to be 30 degrees or it'sgoing to be 32 degrees or
something Celsius, which inAustralia is very common, right,
as we have that all the time.
They talk about these things.
But what they've started doingis they colour in the map of all
of the UK red, you know, theydo red and they kind of do
(10:17):
flames and they do, you know.
And then they warn people thateveryone's going to die because
of you know, because it's goingto be so hot.
And while I recognize the needto explain to people facts about
what can happen to you in theheat and whether or not you need
to have more water and allthose things, I get all that, I
get that, but you can explainall of that in just a really
(10:40):
sensible way, but they're notdoing that.
They are trying to frightenpeople, and what this is is
these are people that wantpeople to think that the
planet's burning up andeveryone's about to die right
Now.
Again, you may believe that,you may not.
Whatever your opinion is yourbusiness.
However, when it's trying tofrighten the hell out of people
and you might say, oh well, youknow, if you frighten people,
(11:03):
they'll take action, but I don'tthink it works that way,
actually.
Um, I think it's quite theopposite that.
Um.
Anyway, I don't want to go intoall the politics, but yeah, I I
don't think.
Well, it hasn't worked.
Right, that hasn't worked.
Uh, people aren't.
That's just paralyzes people orputs them in a whole lot of
fear, or or has them railingagainst the wrong thing.
(11:25):
So there's a lot of people outthere taking action, but, like
you know, sticking yourself to aroad or something, or
destroying it, trying to destroya beautiful painting in an art
gallery that doesn't achieveanything.
So people are either goingloopy and doing stupid crap like
that or they're just really,really stressed and it's causing
(11:47):
them, it's affecting theirphysical or mental health and
causing them distress abouttheir lives and children.
I mean, it's one of the reasonswhy children are so depressed.
So that's another example.
Another example, you see, is I'mtouching all the hot topics
today, but in just things likewhere, um, in the trans issue as
(12:09):
well I'm not going to go intodetail in it in this podcast or
get uh super political about itbut there are people within that
issue who say there's agenocide.
There's a genocide of transpeople.
A genocide would indicate thatthere was people being murdered
(12:29):
everywhere and there's deadpeople everywhere, and that's
not the situation.
Now you might believe there'sinjustice, you might believe
that you don't agree with laws,there's a whole bunch of things,
but telling a whole group ofpeople that there's a genocide
when there's not a genocide isnot helpful.
And the same goes even for thelast election in the US, where
people were saying that Nazisand Hitler and stuff like that
(12:57):
and even now I've been calledsome interesting names along
those lines as well those nameshave actually lost their meaning
because people are just callingpeople.
They disagree with Nazis, andyou know.
So people have just takenlanguage that they obviously
don't understand or don't wantto understand, or they've
(13:18):
regardless, they've tried tore-change language to suit
themselves, and so what peopleare doing essentially.
Essentially and this is on bothsides of politics variations of
this might be happening, so I'mnot saying it's a one-sided
thing, but it's just a reallybig thing.
At the moment, there's a lot ofloud people on on one side
using particular language and uh, and it's just all of this big
(13:39):
language to frighten people andto make people think, you know,
like there was after the USelection, I think there was a
trans person who suicidedbecause they literally they'd
set it up that, oh my God, likeif Trump gets in, they're going
to line people up and shoot them, kind of thing, and they were
literally saying that kind ofstuff right Now.
(14:00):
That's obviously not true.
That's, you know, hyperbole.
So you can say that you don'tagree with a person's rhetoric
or that you don't like the lawsthat they might be able to bring
in, and you can bring peopletogether to say, well, let's go
and protest, or let's go andvote this person, or let's go
(14:21):
and support this bill orwhatever to fix or change
whatever the thing is thatyou're concerned about.
Absolutely.
You can have concerns aboutthose things and beliefs about
those things, and obviously youknow human rights and beliefs
about human rights andsupporting it all that fantastic
, you know, but basicallygetting people in their mind,
(14:42):
like I saw, people talking totheir children on the day of the
election, uh, and freakingtheir children out the children.
There's one woman who videoedherself telling the children
that trump had won, and had herchildren in tears and saying, oh
, it's going to be different atschool today, you know, as if
him winning, the next daythey're going to go to school
again and be lined up and shotor something.
(15:03):
You know it's ridiculous, right?
So language, the way peopleframe things, whether it be in
the media, or whether it be theway we frame things for
ourselves or the way we framethings when we talk to other
people we need to have a realthink about it, because what we
are doing is we're usinglanguage that makes people think
they're more victim than whatthey are.
(15:24):
We're using language that makespeople who aren't victims
victims and who actually takestheir agency away from people
who are victims and people whoare real victims and not victims
, like we've messed it up, right?
So, essentially, languagereally does matter and what
we're doing is we're using a lotof language at the moment that
(15:44):
I think is physically andemotionally very harmful to
people.
And again I will say, this isnot just about politics, I think
it's just, to a certain extentit is on both sides of politics,
but it is quite extreme on theleft at the moment.
The language, the rhetoric, andI think that seeing the levels
(16:05):
while you only have to see thevideos and stuff on TikTok
levels of mental health inpeople who are in that situation
, tells me that this isn'thealthy and it's not good for
them, right?
So I just want to encourage youto think about language.
Think about when people areusing language on TV reports or
things like that, or not justlanguage, but it might be colors
(16:26):
, where they're rating thingsand putting things in bright red
with flames or whatever.
Just know that language andvisuals and things like that
they're all used as manipulationtools and just have an
awareness around it.
If you have an awareness aroundit whether it's coming from
left, right, whoever, whateveryou can kind of go.
Okay, I understand in thissituation this person is trying
(16:48):
to manipulate an outcome from meor manipulate a particular
emotion from me and at least ifyou understand that and if you
kind of just accept that it'shappening all around, you can
observe it.
And one of two things it willeither affect whether or not you
believe that person or you'llbuy into a certain story or just
at least understanding thatperson.
If they're talking in that way,they're not a news person or a
(17:10):
journalist, they're acommentator.
There's a difference.
And commentators are fine.
I'm a commentator, I commentate, but you're just going to be
honest about the fact thatyou're commentating.
So when I'm talking about healthand wellness from a nutrition
point of view and it's maybesomething that I've studied and
I know a lot about I will sortof say, like as a health
(17:31):
professional, I believe blah,blah, blah.
When I talk more about what Ithink about things or politics
or things like that, I'm veryclear that, hey, I'm just
sprouting my opinion based on mylife, and both is fine, but you
just could be really honestabout it, right.
So just be aware of who istalking to you and what you're
hearing and how you respond toit.
But the other thing, too, isjust be aware of how it affects
(17:52):
your mental health, whatever itis, wherever it's coming from,
and maybe your physical andmental health is being affected
by hearing certain messages,whatever they are, by certain
people.
So there might be a newsreaderthat you're watching or a
podcast you listen to orsomething else a group of people
that you talk to, and it mightbe harmful to your health to be
talking to those people ifthey're using this kind of
(18:12):
language.
So I think it's reasonable andwhat I'm not talking about is
not is not exposing yourself topeople with different opinions,
because I actually think it'sreally healthy to be exposed to
people with different opinions.
I think that we all need thatand it is really good to hear,
well, what does the other sidethink and why do they think it,
and that helps you strengthenyour argument or maybe change
your argument or maybe changeyour viewpoint altogether.
(18:34):
Whatever, it is great, as longas people who are discussing it
are discussing it in good faithand people aren't using these
framing techniques where theyuse this language.
And another example of thisframing techniques, just to give
you a bit of an idea this iskind of like look, a lawyer
could explain this a whole lotbetter than what I can, but just
(18:54):
even like where they say likeleading the witness or whatever
right.
So, for example, if there'sbeen and this was there, was
there's been studies done onthis, I can't, at the top of my
head quote what the studies areand stuff.
But there's been studies doneon this.
So they did one particular studywhere they had a whole bunch of
people witness a car accidentand what they did is afterwards
(19:19):
they spoke to them allseparately and they used
different language to frame theaccident.
And then what they did is theygot people to tell them like,
how, like did they think thatthe car was speeding, and on all
these different facts about theaccident.
So what they found is that whenthey used the word I think the
word was smash If they called ita car smash, people thought
(19:44):
that they saw glass on theground.
So they thought that there wasshattered glass.
Because you hear the word smash, you think smash glass, you
think glass or plastic stuff,whatever, but smashed stuff on
the ground right.
And also, when they used theword smash, people thought that
the car was speeding.
Now, with the same car accident, when they just used I don't
(20:07):
know if they called it incidentaccident or but some other term
that wasn't smash, people didn'tthink the car was speeding and
didn't think that there wasglass on the road.
And that actually wasn't glasson the road, I don't think.
But if they use the term smash,people believed they'd seen it
right.
So that's an example of what Imean by kind of like the leading
, the witness or the framing is,if you want someone to believe
(20:33):
that what you're talking about,whoever you're talking about, is
the victim, is the perpetrator,is the whatever, whatever the
language you use around it, soyou could just report the facts
about.
You know, this is the weatherand these are the strategies
that you use.
You know it's a bit hotter thanusual in England.
You know that's fine, but it'sjust a bit hotter than usual.
Hey, drink plenty of water.
(20:53):
Maybe stay out of the sunshinebetween these hours.
You'll be right, mate.
And look, hey, if you don'thave air con or whatever, maybe
go and spend time at your localshopping mall.
Or in Australia we'd have RSLclubs, whatever it is, pub,
wherever they've got airconditioning or where it's cool
or whatever, right, so you coulddo that.
Or you could sort of paint thewhole map in bright red and
(21:16):
flames and tell people that areall going to die.
So you get the gist of are allgoing to die.
You know, um, so you get.
You get the gist of let howlanguage people use language to
frame things, and so it's usedin politics.
It's also used in health.
Uh, when people are talkingabout, uh, you know, meat and
and um and saturated fat andthat kind of stuff, people use
(21:37):
all sorts of language where theyframe things in a certain way.
Certainly any language wherepeople are talking about vegan
versus meat kind of thing onboth sides, you can sometimes
hear the framing where peopleare kind of framing in a way
that supports their argument,right and framing.
(22:00):
And actually the other thingtoo is that what we do is that
if we believe a certain thing.
So what's happened in this isI've talked about this in other
episodes, so I won't go intodetail here but because we've
spent so long demonizingsaturated fat and meat, now a
lot of people just assume it'sreally bad.
So what you'll see is in a film.
So I don't know how many filmsI have seen where they're
(22:23):
talking about bacon and eggs andthey're talking about them as
heart attack food.
Right, and you know that's.
I wouldn't class them as heartattack food and everything
depends on dose and whatever,but I particularly would not
class eggs as heart attack food.
I think processed meats havetheir challenges, but in meat in
general is referred to as heartattack, food in movies and TV
shows and eggs.
(22:43):
They talk about eggs andpeople's cholesterol and heart
attack and all that, which iscompletely incorrect.
But that language, now that's aframing that we now use in TV
comedy, in TV series, movies,whatever.
That's a framing that is usednow, which is an incorrect
framing.
But it's a framing of, like anutrition, you know, fact,
(23:06):
inverted commas.
That is not true, but it's justso set in our system that
that's what we do.
The same is now that every timeit's a hot day, it's because
it's climate change and blah,blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
So you've got to be aware ofthe framing that we put into
things and once we decide thatwe essentially we want people to
(23:27):
believe a certain thing, we usea certain framing.
So it's certainly done innutrition, it is done in
politics, it is done in manythings.
So just have an awareness aroundthat.
If you have an awareness aroundthat and if you listen to when
people talk whether it's anewsreader, a podcaster, whether
it's me, whoever it is justlistened for the emotive words
that people use and kind of go,oh, that's interesting, that
person's using emotive words totry to get a certain reaction
(23:49):
from me and if their words seemto be like sort of hyperbolic,
it's like, okay, I get that, itmatters, but that word is a big
word for that situation, right?
So just I want you to just takea step back, notice your own
language, but notice languagethat's being used towards you,
(24:10):
and whether it be from healtheducators, about politics, about
whatever, just notice language.
It's a really important thingand you might see a lot of this.
Actually, I think I'm going todo another episode, a little bit
about office politics andlanguage and stuff like that.
But be very aware of howlanguage that people use,
because people will frame thingsin such a way as to get
(24:32):
whatever result they want, andsometimes they're completely
lying and it's completelyincorrect.
Or sometimes what they'resaying the substance might be
correct, but they will use thelanguage like if they're
reporting on, like I was talkingabout before, something in a
war, they will frame it or usewords to give you the idea of
(24:53):
who they think is the enemy orthe oppressed, or oppressor,
whatever right.
And you hear it a lot thesedays because there's big
oppressed, oppressor narrativeseverywhere.
It's a sort of crazy stupidstuff that we do these days, and
so you will hear, all the time,people will be letting you know
who they think the oppressedand the oppressor are, in
(25:14):
whatever situation, and theywill be framing it in a certain
way.
So I just wanted to point outthat happens a lot.
You may or may not agree withwhat people are saying not
saying whatever but I just wantyou to notice the framing,
notice the emotive language,have an awareness around it, and
that will just help you kind ofsometimes, like just also step
back from it a little bit andkind of go oh, that person's
(25:35):
just trying to freak me out,right, which is what a lot of
people got to over, sort ofCOVID not saying that COVID, it
was not a serious situation andpeople didn't die, and all of
that, because of course it wasand all these terrible things
happened.
However, the language around itagain, it kind of got a bit
crazy on sort of ultimately onboth sides, but the language
around it got super crazy andvery clearly people were trying
(26:01):
to very clearly and they'veadmitted it since and it's been
very clear, but very clearlypeople were trying to manipulate
you.
So just notice when people aretrying to manipulate you one way
or the other, so that you cankind of take a bit of a step
back from it and go okay, thesubstance of what the person
says you may or may not think istrue, you may or may not agree
(26:23):
with them, but hey, they'rereally trying to manipulate me.
If they're trying that hard tomanipulate me, do I need to have
a bit of a closer look at it?
And you know just kind of wellI suppose what I'm trying to say
is stay curious, notice andalso notice how that framing and
that language affects yourphysical and mental health.
So then you can decide whereyou do and don't want to get
(26:46):
your information from.
So anyway, I hope that's.
I know it's a bit confusing,but I hope that makes sense.
And please, now I'd love tohear your feedback.
And, like I said there's, thewhole point of this wasn't to be
political per se, but just topoint out in situations where
this stuff is being used.
And, like I acknowledged before, it's not just one side that
(27:07):
uses all sorts of differentthings, or one side of anything,
whether it's politics orwhatever, it is right.
It's just a human thing that weuse, we manipulate and we are
all guilty to a certain extentof manipulating and using
different language to favor thething that we believe in or
don't believe in, or whateverthe situation is.
Anyway, I hope that you enjoyedthat.
(27:30):
You got something out of that,and happy for you to give me any
feedback.
Again, I'm happy to have alwayshappy to have conversations in
good faith.
I'm always happy to haveconversations in good faith, but
only if you want to haveconversations in good faith.
Anyway, like subscribe, pleasereview in iTunes and all the
(27:50):
usual places, comment on Rumbleor YouTube and I'll talk to you
all again next week.
Thank you, bye.
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