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Writer's pictureKatrina Steel

The Science Behind Words

Updated: Oct 4

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”


This phrase is reminiscent of childhood when we didn’t want others to know how hurtful their words truly were. However, the belief that physical injury is more painful than psychological or emotional injury is not necessarily true.


happy Woman

Scientific studies actually show that positive and negative words not only affect us on a deep psychological level, but they have a significant impact on the outcome of our lives.


Words Can Hurt Me

In their neuroscience experiment, “Do Words Hurt?”, Maria Richter and collaborating scientists monitored subjects’ brain responses to auditory and imagined negative words. During this process, they discovered painful or negative words increase Implicit Processing within the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex.Put frankly, their study proved that negative words release stress and anxiety-inducing hormones in subjects impacting our physical state.


Additionally, a study found increased levels of anxiety in children associated with higher rates of negative self-talk. According to the study’s abstract, “These results suggest negative self-talk plays a role in the generation or maintenance of anxiety in normal children.” Ultimately, negative words, whether spoken, heard, or thought, not only cause situational stress, but also contribute to long-term anxiety.


Think Happy Thoughts

Naturally, the recognition that holding negative thoughts in our mind is enough to induce stress and anxiety hormones begs the question, “What effect do positive thoughts have?”

In their jointly written book, Words Can Change Your Brain, Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist at Thomas Jefferson University, and Mark Robert Waldman, a communications expert state, “a single word has the power to influence the expression of genes that regulate physical and emotional stress.” Furthermore, according to these two experts in their field, exercising positive thoughts can quite literally change one’s reality.


“a single word has the power to influence the expression of genes that regulate physical and emotional stress.”


“By holding a positive and optimistic word in your mind, you stimulate frontal lobe activity. This area includes specific language centers that connect directly to the motor cortex responsible for moving you into action. And as our research has shown, the longer you concentrate on positive words, the more you begin to affect other areas of the brain.”~Newburg, Waldman


Over time, given sustained positive thought, functions in the parietal lobe start to change. Consequently, this changes our perception of the self and those around us. Essentially, holding a positive view of ourselves helps train our brain to see the good in others.Thus, by exercising consistent positive thoughts and speech, we not only change our self-perception, but how we perceive the world around us. Ultimately, this grants us the ability the shape our reality and change the world for the better.

The Science Behind Words.

The Science Behind Words.


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