He showed the words “chocolate cake” to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. “Guilt” was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: “celebration.

~ Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan Americans Chocolate Chocolate Cake Connotations Food French Guilt Politics Semantics Word Association

Words in the head are sticky and social creatures – when you finally pull one out, you're liable to get lots of bits of meanings that have rubbed onto them as a result of their palling around with other words.

~ Gregory C. Carlson

Gregory C. Carlson Assumptions Biases Connotations Language