Tongue Power

"The tongue has the power of life and death…” Proverbs 18:21

“…a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.” Proverbs 15:14

From the pages of Harvard Business Review this month come two powerful confirmations of these age old truths.

In the first, researchers at USC and the University of Florida conducted three experiments to measure the effect of rudeness on test subjects. In the first experiment, a researcher in the study spoke harshly to a group of test subjects. In a second experiment the harsh words were spoken by a person who was not perceived to be part of the study. In the third, test subjects were simply told to imagine that they were the object of the first two experiments.

In each case, the test subjects ability to perform tasks such as solving anagrams or suggesting uses for a brick were impaired by the effect of the harsh words. Researchers reported that the test subjects were preoccupied with the incidents of rudeness and their attention to other tasks was impaired.

The second tidbit comes from a first person article by Kris Gopalakrishnan, the CEO of Infosys Technologies. Mr. Gopalakrishnan relates that his parents pushed him to study medicine in college. Not very interested in that subject he failed to gain admittance to the medical program after his second year of college. Dejectedly he switched his major to physics and applied to tutor with a “tough, hard bitten” teacher for extra help. Accepted for the program, Gopalakrishnan went about his work doing the best he could. Then according to Gopalakrishnan, “Between problem sets one day he (the teacher) stopped and said, ‘You don’t need to worry. You’re good at this, you enjoy it, and you’re going to land on your own two feet. For now, just concentrate on your studies.”

According to the Gopalakrishnan the effect was magical. His grades shot up and eventually he became one of the best students at the college. He earned a place in India’s top-ranked physics master’s program and continued on for a computer science degree. Eventually he founded his own company.

Who would have thought that today’s Harvard would confirm the sage advice of the Bible?