6 Common Phrases You May Not Realize Are Condescending
HuffPost
Experts explain what these phrases imply — and why you often use them without realizing their impact.
While we may strive to be kind and compassionate in our communications with people, we’re bound to fall short sometimes. And one of the ways we do that in conversation? When we condescend, or talk down, to the other person.
We’re being condescending when we speak to someone in a way that implies our own superiority, said journalist Celeste Headlee, author of “We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter.”
“It generally involves some kind of haughty tone, but condescension also almost always involves a passive-aggressive behavior,” Headlee told HuffPost.
“In other words, when you are condescending to someone as in, ‘Bless your heart,’ you are putting on a false persona of kindness but beneath that is that clear message of superiority. You’re treating them in a way that shows that they are an inferior.”
The tendency to talk down to others may have to do with trying to elevate our own social status, Headlee suggested.
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