Hidden safety bias in human language challenges 70 years of linguistic theory
University of Vermont researchers propose new framework, ousiometrics, based on power, danger and structure
Researchers at the University of Vermont have discovered a consistent preference for safety over danger in human language, a finding that overturns a widely accepted model of word meaning that has stood for more than seven decades. The study, published in Science Advances, introduces a mathematical approach called ousiometrics and shows that the traditional valence-arousal-dominance (VAD) framework, developed by psychologist Charles Osgood in the 1950s, may miss a deeper structure rooted in survival priorities.