Don't talk about pink elephants! Speaker's control over leaking private information during language production.

Publisher: Sage Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 9007542 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0956-7976 (Print) Linking ISSN: 09567976 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Psychol Sci Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2010-> : Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage
Original Publication: New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, c1990-

Disclosure* ; Language* ; Privacy* ; Speech*; Communication ; Humans ; Verbal Behavior

Speakers' descriptions sometimes inappropriately refer to information known only to them, thereby "leaking" knowledge of that private information. We evaluated whether speakers can explicitly control such leakage in light of its communicative consequences. Speakers described mutually known objects (e.g., a triangle) that had size-contrasting matches that were privileged to the speakers (e.g., a larger triangle visible to the speakers only), so that use of a contrasting adjective (e.g., small) involved referring to the privileged information. Half the time, speakers were instructed to conceal the identity of the privileged object. If speakers can control their leaked references to privileged information, this conceal instruction should make such references less likely. Surprisingly, the conceal instruction caused speakers to refer to privileged objects more than they did in the baseline condition. Thus, not only do speakers have difficulty not leaking privileged information, but attempts to avoid such leakage only make it more likely.

Psychon Bull Rev. 1994 Dec;1(4):476-90. (PMID: 24203555)
Psychol Sci. 2002 Jul;13(4):329-36. (PMID: 12137135)
Cognition. 1996 Apr;59(1):91-117. (PMID: 8857472)
Psychol Rev. 1994 Jan;101(1):34-52. (PMID: 8121959)
Psychol Sci. 2000 Jan;11(1):32-8. (PMID: 11228840)

R01 MH064733 United States MH NIMH NIH HHS; R01 MH64733 United States MH NIMH NIH HHS

Date Created: 20060421 Date Completed: 20060605 Latest Revision: 20211020

20250114

PMC1868699

10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01697.x

16623681