Does Jargon Make You Look Insecure?

You may not be sending the signal you intend

Conspicuous consumption has a bad reputation, for good reason. It’s about relying on flash rather than substance, status symbols rather than earned admiration.

We can often tell when someone is trying to impress us with flash. Most of the time, we lose respect for that person.

According to a study into the use of jargon titled “ Compensatory Conspicuous Communication,” the same thing may happen when people use jargon in their speech or writing. The research suggests that people sometimes use jargon as “a communicative form of conspicuous consumption.”

The authors of the study start by offering one of the best academic definitions of jargon that I’ve seen [italics are mine]:

Jargon is “socially learned words or expressions used by a particular profession or specialized group, which are used in place of more broadly accessible and less formal alternatives, and are difficult for outsiders to understand.”

Zachariah C. Brown, Eric M. Anicich, and Adam D. Galinsky

A word or phrase can be jargon if others don’t understand it and if there’s a simpler way to describe it.