New research suggests that people who use filler speech and discourse markers are more thoughtful than those that don't. Like, y'know?
There are plenty of habits that we know we have that annoy other people or make a bad impression, but we simply can't ditch them no matter how hard we try. One of those that seems to be on the increase is the amount of people who can't get from one end of a sentence to the other without filling their speech with words and phrases such as "like" or "you know" and "I mean", which are often associated with being inarticulate and not being very thoughtful. As it turns out, we might have that wrong, like.
New research suggests that those people who use and depend on discourse markers are in fact more thoughtful and conscientious, and are paying more attention to what you're saying as well as putting great thought in to choosing their words. The folks at Science of Us got their hands on the The Journal of Language and Social Psychology which like totally explains what this is all about, I mean, you know?
"Conscientious people are generally more thoughtful and aware of themselves and their surroundings. When having conversations with listeners, conscientious people use discourse markers, such as ‘I mean’ and ‘you know,’ to imply their desire to share or rephrase opinions to recipients. Thus it is expected that the use of discourse markers may be used to measure the degree to which people have thoughts to express."
Basically, that means that they're giving the conversation they're having with you their full attention and are considering what they have to say very carefully, rather than tuning you out. They might even have a lot more to say than you, too. While that's all well and good, we're not so sure that it applies to everyone though, like such as poor aul Miss South Carolina in the Miss Teen USA contest back in '07.
Main pic via fanpop.com
