“Jargon is a shortlisting mechanism of identifying if a person is in my industry and knows what I’m talking about. I can recognise that they’re the perfect person for me to speak to and that they are as knowledgeable—if not more knowledgeable—about the industry I want to learn more about,” says Purohit. “Spending time talking to them, our conversation is going to get deeper and deeper, with more and more jargon likely to come up.”

From this, it can be assumed that jargon is somehow a cheat code to instant respect—but overuse may have negative consequences. Brown believes that our initial perceptions of other people are often based on their warmth and competence, which can be imbalanced by excessive jargon.

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“When you start using status signals [jargon] of any kind, the audience perception of [your] warmth and competence increases. You’re now part of the group; I identify with you more,” Brown says. But as the speaker’s use of jargon continues, then comes the tipping point: they appear more confident, but also lose their warmth. “Now you’re actually positioning yourself above me. It’s created distance… it’s a little threatening to me.”

Brown states that these more negative reactions to jargon overuse are likely to occur when professionals who engage in the use of them are of the same perceived status.

“In the animal kingdom, fights are most likely to happen where hierarchy isn’t clearly established, like when you see two matched bucks fighting each other. But when hierarchy is established, it’s stable.” That contention occurs in the same way with humans, he adds. “When I’m using fancy words, or come in dressed in a three-piece suit, it’s not gonna annoy my assistants. It’s going to annoy the guy working the desk next to me, who’s been there the same amount of time.” 

Philippines-based Georgianna Carlos, the founder and CEO of the pet care products company Fetch! Naturals, had such an encounter early in her career. “I was talking to someone—we were both less than a year into the business. Suddenly he started throwing out bizarre terms I’d never heard before and I was left wondering what they had meant. I felt maybe there was something he had to prove.”

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A situation where founders definitely feel an urge to present value and overindulge in jargon is when pitching to clients or investors. And while it might make sense to go heavy on jargon, this can backfire.

“People won’t choose the high jargon pitch, because they won’t understand it,” Brown says. “It’s a delicate balance. On the one hand, you want to use this common jargon but on the other, you don’t want to just be spouting incomprehensible nonsense.”

There is the temptation to chalk up such disengagement to investors coming from industries outside of the one the founders are in. The Gen.T honourees we spoke to agreed that, when they are speaking to investors who lack fluency in industry-specific jargon, it can sometimes be difficult to get them to invest in the business.

A 2020 study published in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology found that excessive jargon use in technical fields meant they were less understood by laypeople. But even when pitching to subject experts, too much jargon can be an interest killer. A 2021 paper from the Royal Society showed that increased use of specialised terminology in scientific papers resulted in fewer citations from them appearing in other scientific papers. 

Taiwan-based Richard Liao, CEO of the modern glassware brand Hwa Hsia Glass, agrees that the use of jargon might damage the appeal of what the speaker is selling. “People try to pitch their ideas and they’ll say it’s ‘a disruptive strategy’ or they’re ‘creating new synergies’—and that actually makes the presentation less powerful. You’ll get caught on the words and wonder what it really has to do with what this person is trying to tell you,” he says. “If you feel a story is not connected or not congruent, you’ll probably lose interest in the product or service.” 

This question of how much and what jargon terms to use is a challenge. What will entice and what will irritate? This is compounded by the constant influx of new buzzwords. This presents a gamble: jump onto buzzwords too early and baffle, or annoy, your audience—or adopt them too late and appear out of touch.

“What’s ‘cutting edge’ is now ‘bleeding edge’ and ‘cutting edge’ will eventually be as cliché to use as ‘kill two birds with one stone’. That gets to the faddishness of jargon, where it’s like fashion—if someone uses a term wrong, they are so last season.”

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This can even lead to jargon-warping perceptions of important social issues. “Sustainability, in the years when it was just up and coming, was always a positive word. Today, I feel like if you can’t back it up enough with concrete talk, people accuse you of greenwashing,” says Purohit. 

Sometimes, the change in perception towards these buzzwords is propelled by those with an agenda, Singapore-based Gen.T honouree Tan Szue Hann, real estate sustainability professional and chairman of sustainability at the Singapore Institute of Architects, says, “A phrase such as ‘climate change’, instead of ‘global warming’, may be politically influenced. Our cognitive response to ‘climate change’ is ‘adaptation’, because we’ve been led to believe that change is good for you. On the other hand, ‘global warming’ is more direct and suggests that we need mitigation measures. So there could be political undertones to jargon as well.”

This power of language to effectively elicit emotional and behavioural responses is the main reason jargon isn’t going anywhere, regardless of the groans it might continue to cause in the workplace. Brown has even seen similarities between jargon and the invented language systems within cults. “The process of creating the language tools and mechanisms in cults is somewhat similar to several organisations. For example, Google and Crossfit are known to have their own terminology, and using group-specific jargon reflects how much someone is embedded into or buys into that particular organisation.”

Though the cult comparison may be disconcerting, it’s unlikely you should worry about robes and pentagrams appearing in your company conference room. But what this does demonstrate is how systems of shared vocabulary, even with the many pitfalls noted, can foster close connections and drive action. The real hurdle for many businesses is to ensure jargon is applied in moderation and with care to fulfil its purpose of communication, serving more than egos or obfuscation.

As Tan puts it, “Overuse of corporate jargon risks having you sounding like a corporate stooge without actually imbuing any value to a conversation. Saying something completely generic like ‘let’s touch base’ just means ‘we’ve got to connect somehow’. Using something specific, like ‘Why don’t we reconnect on this issue at a given time and date’, would be a lot more productive. My issue isn’t so much about jargon being used—it’s about hiding behind that veil of ambiguity that jargon encourages.”

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