#144: Pinocchio Effect, Orwell's Writing Rules & Dennett’s Writing Hack
3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Writing Truthfully
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I. Pinocchio Effect
It is tempting to think that lie detection by way of studying behavioural cues works. One of many indicators used to detect deception is the amount of words we produce. Known as the Pinocchio Effect, this idea is based on a study by Deepak Malhotra et al. of the Harvard Business School:
[T]hey discovered that liars tend to speak in more complex sentences in an attempt to win over their suspicious counterparts. It's what W. C. Fields meant when he talked about baffling someone with bullshit. The researchers dubbed this the Pinocchio Effect because, just like Pinocchio's nose, the number of words grew along with the lie. People who are lying are, understandably, more worried about being believed, so they work harder — too hard, as it were — at being believable.
—Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference
II. Orwell's Writing Rules
Orwell's Writing Rules are a set of guidelines on how to write with clarity. They originated from an essay by George Orwell in which he criticised politicians and bureaucrats for employing language to obfuscate and manipulate. The novelist recommended six rules to keep yourself from writing meaningless technocratic drivel:
Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
—George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
I broke the guidelines down further in my essay on Orwell’s Writing Rules: How to Write With Clarity.
III. Dennett’s Writing Hack
“What If I’m Wrong?” philosopher Daniel C. Dennett asked in a recent essay about producing good scholarship. Here’s what he recommends when, in fact, you find out that you were wrong all along.
[I]f after many hours of red-hot thinking and writing you discover to your dismay a fatal flaw, something that you overlooked or underestimated, all is not lost. Go back to the first paragraph and write something along the lines of “It is tempting to think that . . . , because there seems to be a powerful argument to the effect that . . . , but as we shall see, this is an error.” Then make a few minor adjustments to the rest of the paper, pointing carefully to the error that you almost made, and you’re ready to submit it.
—Daniel Dennett, What If I’m Wrong?
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Have a great week,
Chris
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