Can You Prove the Existence of Dysepistemology?
November 1st, 2007 | by Mitchell Allen |How would you like to be the person who discovered the mental map to our reading manner?
Every day, thousands of messages are misread, misinterpreted and mistaken.
If you knew what triggered the brain to see something else, you’d be on the path to learning how to manipulate those triggers. I’ve created a working title for your new discovery: dysepistemology.
Dysepistemology, the study of mistaken knowledge, could establish a foundation for curing people of false hopes, high expectations and hyperbolic faith.
Of course, if you are a marketer, you’d want to exploit this discovery to create new ways to slip under your prospects’ radar of suspicion.
Don’t get me wrong.
I’m not talking about hypnotic writing, subliminal messages or neuro-linguistic programming.
These tactics have been studied to death.
You will want to look at other phenomena that may impact a reader’s comprehension:
- Attention Deficit Disorder
- Dyslexia
- Blurry vision
- Kerning
- Denotation
- Nuance
- Jargon
- Slang
ADD and dyslexia are directly associated with brain function.
Trace the wiring, uncover the secrets of neurological disorders!
Blurry vision and kerning don’t mix. B u m becomes B u r n.
Tackle the theoretical challenges of associating font spacing with serendipitous misreading.
Denotation is what you mean, nuance is what your reader thinks you meant.
This is a perfect opportunity to put on the lab coat and conduct experiments.
Jargon, slang and other literary short-cuts are sure to short-circuit your readers’ synapses.
Your job is to figure out why this happens.
Mind you, I have not discovered anything that substantiates this theory.
I’m just giving you, ambitious reader, some inspiration for further research.
The only thing I ask is that, when accepting your Nobel Prize, you give me a shout-out!
