What It’s Like to Use Beautiful Words, According to Science
5 words, That’s it
I am a collector of hidden treasures in plain sight. Words — simple, ordinary words — used slightly differently can uplift our conversations.
1. Something vs. Anything: What I learned from Doctor’s language.
Prof. John Heritage of University of California, Los Angles studied how patients responded to a simple follow-up question, “is there anything else we need to take care of today?” To compare the results, one set of doctors used a small twist, “is there something else we need to take care of today?”
The something option provided statistically significant increase of reporting concerns. You are welcome to dwell into the technical details of the research here.
I discovered the practical punch line to be immensely useful — you have a friend mourning through a loss or you sense that your boss is in a pickle.
“Is there something I can do?” works wonders compared to “is there anything I can do?”
Try it. It sprinkles positivity. You are happy you could do something and they are happy you helped out on something.
