Distancing language
Encyclopedia
Distancing language is phrasing used by people to "distance" themselves from a statement, either to avoid thinking about the subject or to distance themselves from its content. Distancing language is often a means of self-deception
, but distancing language used orally may indicate that a person is lying
.
There are many techniques that people use to distance themselves from the truth. This is especially apparent when someone is attempting to avoid consequences. For example, the use of pronouns changes when one is being deceptive. "My" becomes "the." For example, "I drove 'my' car to the ramp" becomes "the car rolled into the lake." Other constructs to examine may include the addition of unnecessary words. For example, "We didn't see her" might come out "We didn't really see her." The additional word could be an indication of deception. There are many references on the internet to articles about detecting deception. Many of these techniques are used by the police in criminal investigations.
Self-deception
Self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument...
, but distancing language used orally may indicate that a person is lying
Lie
For other uses, see Lie A lie is a type of deception in the form of an untruthful statement, especially with the intention to deceive others....
.
Examples of distancing language
- Distancing clinical language partly shields health workers from the impact of workplace experiences, e.g. "bled to death" substituted with "exsanguinatedExsanguinationExsanguination is the fatal process of hypovolemia , to a degree sufficient enough to cause death. One does not have to lose literally all of one's blood to cause death...
". - Military personnel may use a range of distancing terms for combatants either killing or getting killed. They may also employ distancing, dehumanizing terms for combatants on the opposing side. "Collateral damageCollateral damageCollateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.-Etymology:...
" for the death of uninvolved civilians is an example. - Everyday euphemisticEuphemismA euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
references to death, dying, burial, corpses and to the people and places which deal with death are also protective, distancing terms either formal or informal, e.g. "croaked", "bought the farm", "expired", "passed on". - An indirect statement implying an answer, rather than a direct answer, may indicate lying. For example, replies such as "would I do such a thing?" or even "I wouldn't do such a thing", rather than "I didn't do it". Referring to someone known well by the speaker as "that woman" instead of using a name or "her" is another example http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/09/16/MN241376.DTL&type=science.
There are many techniques that people use to distance themselves from the truth. This is especially apparent when someone is attempting to avoid consequences. For example, the use of pronouns changes when one is being deceptive. "My" becomes "the." For example, "I drove 'my' car to the ramp" becomes "the car rolled into the lake." Other constructs to examine may include the addition of unnecessary words. For example, "We didn't see her" might come out "We didn't really see her." The additional word could be an indication of deception. There are many references on the internet to articles about detecting deception. Many of these techniques are used by the police in criminal investigations.