Words that don’t sit right with you

Words, we use words in sentences we write, talk. Well you get the point, we use words in our everyday life almost every hour. But what if I were to tell you that there are a set of words that people tend to avoid or have a certain dislike towards. Famously, 10% - 20% of the population gets the ‘ick’ from the word “moist,” and a lot of other people don’t like the words “crevice” or “vomit.”

This phenomenon is called “word aversion”, and the most simplified or common explanation for it is that there’s just something in the word that inherently sounds wrong. However, studies have shown that similar-sounding words don’t provoke that same kind of response. People who are averse to “moist” won’t have anything wrong with “moose” or “hoist”. Instead, word aversion is primarily caused through meaning-based associations evoked through some kind of imagery. Words such as “moist”, “crevice”, and “vomit” can be assumed to be adjacent to the theme of “gross bodily functions”.

This has big implications in how you’re being advertised to. Marketers, for example, know that people are way less likely to buy a product described with the word “moist” due to its aversion, and lawyers might also avoid certain words because they know they have an effect on you. Studies have shown, for example, that people are less likely to approve legislation with the word “tax” in it, than if it has the exact same language but the word “revenue” instead. So it means that we even have a slight aversion to the word “tax”, which might have an impact on legislation trying to affect positive change, like implementing a pollution tax.

Information source:

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6ht9504

Glossary:

Ick : used to express disgust