Who knew? Words matter.
[quote=“NYT: In ‘Sweetie’ and ‘Dear,’ a Hurt for the Elderly”]Professionals call it elderspeak, the sweetly belittling form of address that has always rankled older people: the doctor who talks to their child rather than to them about their health; the store clerk who assumes that an older person does not know how to work a computer, or needs to be addressed slowly or in a loud voice. Then there are those who address any elderly person as “dear.”
“People think they’re being nice,” said Elvira Nagle, 83, of Dublin, Calif., “but when I hear it, it raises my hackles.”
Now studies are finding that the insults can have health consequences, especially if people mutely accept the attitudes behind them, said Becca Levy, an associate professor of epidemiology and psychology at Yale University, who studies the health effects of such messages on elderly people.
“Those little insults can lead to more negative images of aging,” Dr. Levy said. “And those who have more negative images of aging have worse functional health over time, including lower rates of survival.”[/quote]
There’s some very interesting research on ‘priming’ in other areas as well. Impressionable, aren’t we?
[quote=“Jaboney”]
Now studies are finding that the insults can have health consequences, especially if people mutely accept the attitudes behind them, said Becca Levy, an associate professor of epidemiology and psychology at Yale University, who studies the health effects of such messages on elderly people.
?[/quote]
I believe it, I almost had a health consequence at the bank today when the counter person kept talking to my wife instead of me. I wanted to give him one
Ooooo er! Maybe he was looking at your wife and thinking “I’d like to give her one!”
From the BBC: Psychologists found memories of painful emotional experiences linger far longer than those involving physical pain.
I’ll probably be scarred for life by my interactions with Buttercup.
[quote=“Loretta”]From the BBC: Psychologists found memories of painful emotional experiences linger far longer than those involving physical pain.
[/quote]
We’re fortunate to have the BBC around to enlighten us all on that score.
I mean, is there anyone who didn’t know that already, without the need for Psychologists to figure it out?
My old man has been saying for years that if women remembered the pain of childbirth none of them would have more than one child.
The BBC’s mandate was changed a few years ago from “to inform, educate and entertain” to “to state the obvious,” at least as far as I can tell. Did you see the story a while ago about how men make their decisions less rationally when there is a nice pair of tits in the room?
All the same, imagine what the cumulative effect of all those rude comments from Buttercup and The Chief has been on my delicate sensibilities!
I hate it when people call me “fucktard”. It really raises my hackles.
I like calling thirty something women, especially cashiers, “Madam”.
It really raises their hackles.
Which is about all the action i get these daze, deep in the heart of my 19th nervous breakdown.