Featuring the CAU: People have very different understandings of even the simplest words

A recent article in Scientific American shines a light on a key CAU insight on climate action: that people's different understanding of words affects compromises their ability to communicate with one another about climate change. It explores how a person's values, as well as their professional expertise and personal experiences affect the associations that they have with commonly used concepts.

Excerpts below: 

Recent psychology research shows that conceptual differences of this sort turn up everywhere and that people are usually oblivious to these disparities. Neuroscience studies demonstrate that they are underpinned by differences in how the brain represents concepts; a process influenced by politics, emotion and character.
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Differences in thinking that have been shaped by lifetimes of experience, practice or beliefs can be almost impossible to shift. But two steps offer a way forward: making people aware of their differences, and encouraging them to choose new language that is free of conceptual baggage.

To read the full Scientific American article, click here.