Words Will Never Break Me Analysis

In 1844, travel writer Alexander William Kinglake publishes his famous Eothen where the famous rhyme “Stick and Stones may break my bones, but words will never break me” first appears. The rhyme states that while physical violence will harm you, words can be ignored and rendered useless. This famous quote is ultimately harmful because it is false. The unfortunate truth is that words do hurt. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but that doesn’t mean we don’t feel hurt from broken hearts. Despite what the childish rhyme says, words are some of the most powerful tools at our disposal. International speaker and author Yehuda Berg is quoted with saying: “Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, …show more content…
Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner’s study involved grouping the test subjects into pairs, with one being dubbed the “confederate” and the other, the “participant”. In each trial, the confederate would be presented with two choices: either shock the participant, or subject them to a pitch judgement test. The confederates were then split into two groups, one group who would always choose the shock, and the other who would always pick the pitch judgement. Whatever choice was picked would be shown to the participant via computer screen. However, the participants were told that the unbeknownst to the confederate, the choices were switched. Therefore, when pitch judgement was chosen by the confederate, the participant was shocked. The big twist with the experiment was that no matter what option was chosen, the participant would always receive the shock. The results from the experiment illustrated that the electric shocks that were intended felt more painful to the participants, even though the electric shocks associated with each choice were the same. The malice behind the intentional electric shocks amplified the perceived pain and not only made it hurt more, but also harder to fully recover from. What’s the reasoning for this? Why do words have such a profound effect on …show more content…
Words can create feelings of distress and depression. They can drive people to hurt themselves or commit suicide. The human brain finds no difference between physical and emotional pain and it affects us in the same manners. Sticks and stones can hurt even more when malice and distaste fuel them. On a psychological level, we are more than physical bodies. We have thoughts and feelings that are just as fragile as our bones. It takes time and care to recover physically, but restoring our mental fortitude is just as