How do words shape our thoughts and our reality? How can changing one word dramatically impact people's opinions? What really is the importance of being precise in your speech?

Orly studies psycholinguistics, which is the meeting place between psychology and linguistic studies. In particular, she researches how language can affect our attitudes, emotions, and responses. We spoke about the research she’s done in the field of conflict resolution and negotiations, where she and her colleagues have shown that different wordings, often very subtle, can have a substantial impact on how we perceive different texts and messages.

It’s incredible how much our language and the words we choose to use shape our reality and our interpersonal relationships. Language is this miraculous human instinct, and it’s such an integral part of our experience that we often take it for granted. So I hope this conversation will help shed some light on some of the different aspects of language - how it works, how we acquire it, and how it affects our thoughts and our reality.