“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”` Rudyard Kipling

This week, sponsored by the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors, celebrates words and their importance.

We grew up believing the children’s rhyme, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Yet, at some point, you realized that was completely untrue and that words could hurt. Words can change our relationships, our demeanor, our entire system of beliefs, and even our businesses. Words have a dramatic effect on what we know, how we interact with people and the decisions we ultimately make. Words can influence us, inspire us or just as easily bring us to tears.

As we grow up, the words we hear from parents, coaches, teachers and authority figures help to shape our beliefs in ourselves. We begin an inner dialogue that can be incredibly supportive (I am smart enough to figure this out) or terribly discouraging (I always screw things up!). Our self-talk can be terribly sabotaging when we are working towards a goal. For example, when you tell yourself that you will gain weight by even looking at a donut, the subconscious mind is a willing participant. It will begin the process of holding on to fat whenever you look at a donut.

When we begin to recognize this, we can shift our thinking and our words. “I have the strength to keep running until I reach my goal”. Think about the story of The Little Engine That Could. The opening sentence is, “She was a happy little train.” The familiar refrain from the story is “I think I can, I think I can” as she chugged up the steep hill. Indeed, she did!

Are you replaying old tapes in your head of all the reasons, excuses you will fall short? Are your words setting you up for failure? What if you began to think you can? How might you be different? What would change in your attitude, in your behavior and in your words?

This information was interesting to me because it helps demonstrate how we form opinions. Re-frame your expectations to re-frame your experiences.

When consumers taste a chocolate bar they think is made in Switzerland, they’ll prefer it over one supposedly made in China, according to new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. But if you tell them where it’s from after they taste the candy, they’ll prefer the Chinese chocolate.

“Imagine being at a wine tasting and finding out that a wine is expensive after tasting it,” write authors Keith Wilcox, Anne L. Roggeveen, and Dhruv Grewal (all Babson College). “Will learning the price afterwards affect your evaluation differently compared to if you had learned the price beforehand?”

The authors found that the answer seems to depend on whether the information is favorable or not. In the chocolate study, undergraduates were given unbranded squares of Trader Joe’s chocolates to taste. Half of the participants were told the chocolate was made in Switzerland; the remaining students were told the chocolate was made in China. But some were told this information before eating the chocolate and some were told afterwards. “When they were given the country of origin before tasting, the students liked the chocolate more when they were told it was from Switzerland,” the authors write. “This was expected because Switzerland has a strong reputation for chocolate whereas China does not. Surprisingly, when they were given the country of origin after sampling, the students that were told the chocolate was from Switzerland liked it less than those told it was from China.”

The authors found similar results when they told the participants that the chocolate was expensive versus inexpensive. The students enjoyed the same chocolate less when they were told it was expensive after sampling.

Finally, the authors conducted a study in a Boston-area liquor store. Customers were told the store was conducting a blind taste test of a new wine. After tasting, half the customers were told the wine was from Italy; the remaining customers were told it was from India, a region not known for producing fine wines. “As in previous studies, people liked the wine more when they were told it was from India after sampling compared to when they were told it was from Italy,” the authors write. And nearly twice as many people opted to take a $5 coupon for the wine (instead of a gift of similar value) when they were told it was from India.

This blog post has been adapted from a news release issued by the University of Chicago Press Journals

re-frame thoughts

The Power of Words

Does Chinese chocolate taste better than Swiss? Depends on when you find out

This information was interesting to me because it helps demonstrate how we form opinions. Re-frame your expectations to re-frame your experiences.

When consumers taste a chocolate bar they think is made in Switzerland, they’ll prefer it over one supposedly made in China, according to new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. But if you tell them where it’s from after they taste the candy, they’ll prefer the Chinese chocolate.