What’s in a Name

Abstract

Effective communication between scientists and the public requires the use of words that have well-understood meanings. Similarly, use of a word that means one thing to scientists but something else to the lay public can lead to confusion. This situation can arise when words change in their meaning over time in scientific circles but not among the public, and vice versa. On occasion, dissonance between scientific and societal definitions can cause terms to acquire a stigma. This issue is particularly important when scientific terms are used in medical situations. Certain words may invoke a very different impression for a patient than was intended by a medical professional. For example, the term “mental retardation” is defined scientifically on the basis of the population distribution of IQ, but its use, or rather misuse, by members of the public has led to replacement of the term by “intellectual disability” (Schalock et al., 2007). Thus, effective communication requires careful attention to the meaning of words, particularly when used in different contexts. One of the …