Why do people tend towards the most extreme expressions when describing things? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by MossBear@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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It's a pretty common thing on the internet to see somebody relating a story about someone acting in an inconsiderate way and the response is usually something like, "Well that person is a total piece of shit."

I'm fine with using those kinds of words. What I don't get is why people are inclined to go full tilt in how they express themselves rather than using the full range of meaning that words provide. It's like, if you go straight to calling things a piece of shit, how do I know whether you're genuinely upset about something versus, mildly annoyed?

We have all of these linguistic colors and yet things are so often painted in black and white.

Why is this?

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[-] jesterraiin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Why do people tend towards the most extreme expressions when describing things?

It's because extremes tend to present the expected picture better than vague "it's kind of like this and a bit of that..."

this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023

49 points (91.5% liked)

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