Whether intentionally or not the information we transmit via language is never cold facts. Invariably it has a touch of emotion.

If I told you that two cars contacted each other you would probably imagine quite a different picture than you would if I told you that they hit, collided, bumped or smashed into each other.

It has even been reported that differently worded questions asked AFTER watching a short road accident movie affected the respondents' estimates of the speed of the involved car.

Those who were asked how fast the cars were going when they had smashed into each other thought that the cars were moving some 16 km/h faster than thought those who were asked how fast they were moving when they contacted each other.

Further studies suggest that while affecting judgement with post-event questions is doubtful, we can efficiently set other's minds by asking cleverly worded questions BEFORE they have enough information to make their own informed decision.

What is even more amazing is how the use of language affects our memories. In the experiment we have discussed there was a follow-up study. One week later the respondents were asked if there was any scattered glass in the video.

The «contacted» group failed to remember any such glass, whereas the «smashed» group recalled it. The thing was that there was no glass in that short film.