Words and Actions

The language of emotions

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Description

OMG!! A new Words & Actions episode has landed and we couldn't be more excited! In this start to a six-part series, "The language of…", we look at the language of emotion: in the workplace, in advertising and in online selling. There is a fair bit of swearing, our interview guest tells us about emotional labour, and in the end, your hosts get hit in the feels about a charity ad. Join us for a rollercoaster episode! 
 
First we look at a reaction by a company they posted online in response to reviews. This takes us straight to swearing. 
The work on swearing in another language that Veronika mentions is:
  • Mohammadi, A. N. (2022). Swearing in a second language: the role of emotions and perceptions. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 43(7), 629-646.

Erika then follows up with this experiment about swearing and pain:

  • Stephens, R., Atkins, J., & Kingston, A. (2009). Swearing as a response to pain. Neuroreport, 20(12), 1056-1060. 

For Matt's point on emotions as categorised according to context, see:

  • Barrett, L. F. (2006). Solving the emotion paradox: Categorization and the experience of emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(1), 20-46.
  • Barrett, L. F. (2017). The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 12(1), 1-23.

Much of advertising is intended to evoke certain emotions to influence purchasing behaviour. Veronika mentions this psychological study on non-commercial advertising: 

  • Dillard, J. P., & Peck, E. (2000). Affect and persuasion: Emotional responses to public service announcements. Communication Research, 27(4), 461-495.

In the interview, Ningyuan talks about how influencers create communities. It is worth revisiting the notion of "synthetic sisterhood", which was proposed 30 years ago, when printed teenage magazines were still a thing: 

  • Talbot, M. (1995). A synthetic sisterhood: False friends in a teenage magazine. In Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (eds) Gender Articulated: Language and the socially constructed self (pp. 143-165). Routledge. 

For the link to the VOLVO advert and the radio advert of the British Heart Foundation please visit our blog, wordsandactionspodcast.blog.

See you next time.