Page 81 - Essentials of Human Communication

60 Chapter 3 Listening in Human Communication

Communication nOnjudgMentAL And cRiticAL LiStening
Choice point Effective listening includes both nonjudgmental and critical responses. You need to
empathic Listening listen nonjudgmentally—with an open mind and with a view toward understanding.
Your neighbors, who’ve But you also need to listen critically—with a view toward making some kind of evalu-
avoided work all their lives and lived off un- ation or judgment. Clearly, it’s important to listen first for understanding while sus-
fairly obtained government disability pay- pending judgment. Only after you’ve fully understood the relevant messages should
ments, have just won the lottery for $36 mil- you evaluate or judge.
lion. They want you to share their joy and
invite you over for a champagne toast. What Supplement open-minded listening with critical listening. Listening with an
are some of the things you can do to open mind will help you understand the messages better; listening with a critical
strengthen your ability to empathize with mind will help you analyze and evaluate the messages. In adjusting your nonjudg-
these people? What might you say to show mental and critical listening, focus on the following guidelines:
empathic listening?
● avoid filtering out or oversimplifying difficult or complex messages. Similarly, avoid
filtering out undesirable messages. Clearly, you don’t want to hear that something
you believe is untrue or that ideals you hold are self-destructive. Yet it’s important
that you reexamine your beliefs by listening to these messages.
● Recognize your own biases. These may interfere with accurate listening and cause you to
distort message reception through a process of assimilation—the tendency to integrate and
adapt what you hear or think you hear to your own biases, prejudices, and expectations.
● Combat the tendency to sharpen—to highlight, emphasize, and perhaps embellish one or
two aspects of a message. See the message as a whole.
Table 3.4 presents a few fallacies of language that you need to identify and combat in
your critical thinking.

Table 3.4 Listening to Fallacies of Language
Here are four language fallacies that often get in the way of meaningful communication and need to be identified in critical
listening. Often they’re used to fool you; these are ways in which language can be used to serve less-than-noble purposes, to
convince or persuade you without giving you valid reasons. After reviewing these fallacies, take a look at some of the com-
mercial websites for clothing, books, music, or any product you’re interested in, and try to find examples of these fallacies.
Fallacy example notes

weasel words are those whose mean- A commercial claiming that medicine M Other weasel words are “help,” “virtu-
ings are slippery and difficult to pin works “better than Brand X” but doesn’t ally,” “as much as,” “like” (as in “it will
down (Hayakawa & Hayakawa, 1989). specify how much better or in what make you feel like new”), and “more
respect Medicine M performs better. It’s economical.” Ask yourself, “Exactly what
quite possible that it performs better in is being claimed?” For example, “What
one respect but less effectively accord- does ‘may reduce cholesterol’ mean?”
ing to nine other measures.

euphemisms make the negative An executive calls the firing of 200 work- Often euphemisms take the form of in-
and unpleasant appear positive and ers “downsizing” or “reallocation of flated language designed to make the
appealing. resources.” Justin Timberlake’s reference mundane seem extraordinary, the com-
to the highly publicized act with Janet mon seem exotic (“the vacation of a life-
Jackson during the 2004 Super Bowl as a time,” “unsurpassed vistas”). Don’t let
“wardrobe malfunction.” words get in the way of accurate
first-hand perception.
Jargon is the specialized language of a The language of the computer hacker, When used to intimidate or impress, as
professional class. the psychologist, and the advertiser. with people who aren’t members of the
profession, it prevents meaningful com-
munication. Don’t be intimidated by
jargon; ask questions when you don’t
understand.
Gobbledygook is overly complex Extra-long sentences, complex gram- Some people normally speak in complex
language that overwhelms the listener matical constructions, and rare or unfa- language. But, others use complexity to
instead of communicating meaning. miliar words. confuse and mislead. Ask for simplifica-
tion when appropriate.