No one can dodge receiving and bad news from time to time. They are part of life. Something that many times we do not know how to face. For those moments, science has an answer: according to a study, the "ideal" way is to say it directly, but with warning. This is the famous "we have to talk".
This was determined by a study by linguistics professors Alan Manning of Brigham Young University in Utah and Nicole Amare of the University of Southern Alabama, both in the United States. Their findings are clear: the study found that people prefer to receive the bad news bluntly.
"When we receive bad news as the end of a relationship human beings prefer the direct style and the grain, without half-measures, detours or palliatives that pretend to sweeten reality," synthesizes the work.
The teachers carried out an experiment that consisted in bombarding the participants with a series of unpleasant information presented in various visual, textual and verbal forms. When communicating a negative message about a social relationship (for example, "I want to stop dating you" or "you're fired", Manning and Amare found that people appreciated being told frankly and directly, without trying to sweeten it based on educated formulas.
It does not have to start with I'm going to break with you ", it would be too hard, but with a simple "we have to talk "you give the message receiver a few seconds to start processing that they are going to give bad news.
The study argues that that way is also preferred to receive "worse" bad news, such as serious health problems, "you have cancer, you have two months to live." Experts explain that "most individuals prefer to be told bluntly and the most accurate. Denying the facts is no good. If your house is burning, you want to know it so you can leave. And if you have cancer, the same thing. You want to know the truth and not listen to the doctor doing circumlocutions. "
During the study, the 145 volunteers who participated received a panoply of bad news and negative situations, counted in various ways. Then they had to value every message they received based on their perception of it: whether it was clear, thoughtful, direct, effective, sincere, specific and reasoned. They also scored which of these characteristics valued more.
Fuente: buenavibra.es
