Article ; Online: “I am uncertain” vs “It is uncertain”. How linguistic markers of the uncertainty source affect uncertainty communication.
Judgment and Decision Making, Vol 12, Iss 5, Pp 445-
2017 Volume 465
Abstract: Two psychological sources of uncertainty bear implications for judgment and decision-making: external uncertainty is seen as stemming from properties of the world, whereas internal uncertainty is seen as stemming from lack of knowledge. The apparent ... ...
| Abstract | Two psychological sources of uncertainty bear implications for judgment and decision-making: external uncertainty is seen as stemming from properties of the world, whereas internal uncertainty is seen as stemming from lack of knowledge. The apparent source of uncertainty can be conveyed through linguistic markers, such as the pronoun of probability phrases (e.g., I am uncertain vs. It is uncertain). Here, we investigated whether and when speakers use different pronoun subjects as such linguistic markers (Exp. 1 and 2) and what hearers infer from them (Exp. 3 and 4). Speakers more often described higher probabilities and knowable outcomes with internal probability phrases. In dialogue, speakers mirrored the source of their conversational partner. Markers of the source had a main effect or interacted with the probability conveyed and speaker expertise to shape the judgments and decisions of hearers. For example, experts voicing an internal probability phrase were judged as more knowledgeable than experts using an external probability phrase whereas the result was the opposite for lay speakers. We discuss how these findings inform our understanding of subjective uncertainty and uncertainty communication theories. |
|---|---|
| Keywords | uncertainty communication ; source of uncertainty ; subject pronoun ; pragmaticsNAKeywords ; Social Sciences ; H ; Psychology ; BF1-990 |
| Subject code | 410 |
| Language | English |
| Publishing date | 2017-09-01T00:00:00Z |
| Publisher | Society for Judgment and Decision Making |
| Document type | Article ; Online |
| Database | BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection) |
Full text online
More links
Kategorien
Inter-library loan at ZB MED
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.