Loaded language is wording that uses emotional appeal to influence people’s thoughts, actions, or beliefs. It can be positive or negative and is used in cults, politics, business, and advertising. The brain responds to emotions first, making loaded language effective. It can impair critical thinking and reasoning by redefining or relabeling something or someone. Loaded language comes in three forms: loaded questions, snarling words, and glittering generalities. Euphemisms are related to emotional language and can replace loaded versions of language with more positive but vague terms.
Loaded language is wording or phrasing that attempts to influence what people do, think or say using emotional appeal. The emotional connotation can be negative or positive, depending on the direction of the desired swing. It is also known as emotional or high inference language as well as a persuasive language technique. This technique doesn’t necessarily contradict logic or reason, but the culture in which a person is present influences whatever connotation it is within the language. While emotional language is present in everyday interactions, people sometimes associate it with cults, mind control, brainwashing, politics, business, and advertising for its ability to influence people.
In terms of function, a person can use emotional language to redefine or relabel something or someone. For example, if someone calls a person a leech, he defines the person as an individual who clings to and absorbs resources or energy. Based on these new definitions and labels, loaded language can impair a person’s ability to look at something or someone objectively, hindering truly critical thinking and reasoning. A person may also use high inference language to form barriers or isolate, drawing clear distinctions.
Loaded language works in part because of the way the human brain is structured and operates. When a person experiences something, the brain creates a memory of the experience which connects to the emotional centers of the brain, i.e. the individual remembers not only the facts but also the feelings. During new experiences, the brain recalls these memories. The brain is hardwired to respond to emotions first, as having to rationalize everything first could pose a serious threat in times of immediate danger. When someone uses charged language, it depends on this initial emotional response, although it cannot guarantee that a listener or reader will not use the rational centers of the brain to override the emotions being triggered.
Understanding how the brain forms and remembers memories and how it relates to emotions, the key to emotional language is the connotation behind the specific words or phrases a person selects. Connotations are built based on the experiences and memories of people within a given culture, so when experts review uploaded language, they get a glimpse into what is present in the surrounding culture at any given moment. If a person knows the culture well, she may choose specific words and phrases that will ring important emotional bells with someone else. Using loaded language is therefore a way to manipulate individuals into particular responses, feelings, actions or beliefs within a cultural context.
Loaded language comes in three main forms, including loaded questions, snarling words, and glittering generalities or words of virtue. Loaded questions can be “trick” or “guide” questions. Trick questions make a person admit a belief, opinion, or fact that they don’t hold, or make a person deny a fact. Leading questions give a clear indication of how a person should respond, with the answer in the question. Snarling words are derogatory labels, while glittering generalities are positive labels.
Looking at snarling words and glittering generalities, emotional language is related to euphemism, which is an utterance or phrasing meant to cut off other words or phrases that might be offensive or have an unwanted connotation. For example, the word “Nazi” is a snarling word for many people due to the events of World War II and the Holocaust. To avoid this snarling word, one might instead use a glittering generality, such as “patriot of the German fatherland” or “supporter of popular National Socialism,” which are more positive but at the same time a little more vague. This means that when a person uses the euphemism, he can simply replace one loaded version of the language with another.
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