Page 107 - Essentials of Human Communication

86 Chapter 4 Verbal Messages

You may, for example, go on a first date with someone who, at least during the first
hour or so, turns out to be less interesting than you would have liked. Because of this initial
impression you may infer that this person is generally dull. Yet, it could be that this person is
simply ill-at-ease or shy during first meetings. The problem is that you run the risk of judging
a person on the basis of a very short acquaintanceship. Further, if you then define this person
as dull, you’re likely to treat the person as dull and create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A useful extensional device that can help you avoid allness is to end each statement, some-
times verbally but always mentally, with an et cetera (etc.)—a reminder that there is more to learn,
know, and say; that every statement is inevitably incomplete. To be sure, some people overuse
“et cetera.” They use it as a substitute for being specific, which defeats its purpose. Instead, it
should be used to mentally remind yourself that there is more to know and more to say.

DistinguisH between faCts anD inferenCes:
avOiD faCt-inferenCe COnfusiOn
Language enables you to form statements of facts and inferences without making any linguistic
distinction between the two. Similarly, when you listen to such statements you often don’t
make a clear distinction between statements of facts and statements of inference. Yet there
are great differences between the two. Barriers to clear thinking can result when inferences
are treated as facts, a tendency called fact-inference confusion.
For example, you can make statements about things that you observe, and you can make
statements about things that you have not observed. In form or structure these statements are
similar; they cannot be distinguished from each other by any grammatical analysis. You can
say, “She is wearing a blue jacket” as well as “She is harboring an illogical hatred.” If you were
to diagram these sentences, they would yield identical structures, and yet you know that
they’re different types of statements. In the first sentence, you can observe the jacket and the
blue color; the sentence constitutes a factual statement. But how do you observe “illogical
hatred”? This is an inferential rather than a descriptive statement, made not on the basis
solely of what you observe but on the basis this plus your own conclusions.
Making inferential statements is necessary if you’re to talk about much that is meaning-
ful. However, a problem arises when you act as though those inferential statements are
factual statements. You may wish to test your ability to distinguish facts from inferences by
taking the accompanying self-test “Can You Distinguish Facts from Inferences?”

teSt yourSelf

Can you Distinguish facts from inferences?

Carefully read the following report and the observations based on it, modeled on a test developed by William
Haney (1973). Write T if the observation is definitely true, F if the observation is definitely false, and ? if the ob-
servation may be either true or false. Judge each observation in order. Do not reread the observations after you
have indicated your judgment, and do not change any of your answers.
A well-liked college teacher had just completed making up the final examinations and had turned off the lights
in the office. Just then a tall, broad figure with dark glasses appeared and demanded the examination. The pro-
fessor opened the drawer. Everything in the drawer was picked up and the individual ran down the corridor.
The dean was notified immediately.
_____ ➊ The thief was tall, broad, and wore dark glasses.
_____ ➋ The professor turned off the lights.
_____ ➌ A tall figure demanded the examination.

_____ ➍ The examination was picked up by someone.
_____ ➎ The examination was picked up by the professor.