Nick Enfield on Language, Influence, and Science Communications

Listen to this interview of Nick Enfield, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney for Language Research and the Sydney Initiative for Truth. We talk about communication as you think it is and also, about communication as it really is. Enfield is the author of Language vs. Reality: Why Language Is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists (MIT Press, 2022). Nick Enfield : "Every scientist does need to be mindful of the power of language to influence — because we always are influencing people when we use language — that is just foundationally what all communication is: influencing other people. But because reality is so important to science — it's ultimately the object of the research — then scientists really have a responsibility to be clear and not to be vague."