Quantifying Hyperbole: Explicit Estimates of Exaggerated Utterances

Abstract

Purpose. People are exposed to exaggeration in some form every day. They must comprehend and interpret the hyperbole, or conversational overstatement, to which they are exposed. Research suggests that people cognitively correct hyperbolic utterances using information retrieved from memory to generate estimates of what really occurred in the situation or event and the sampling of memory traces during the interpretation of utterances is influenced by the form and contextual elements of the utterance. Methods. In three experiments, participants were presented with texts containing information described in a literal or hyperbolic manner (e.g., “I caught a fish” vs. “I caught a fish the size of a whale”) and asked for explicit estimates of value (e.g., number, size, duration). The form (Experiment 1), context (Experiment 2), and speaker (Experiment 3) of an utterance were all predicted to influence the estimates that people generated. Results. It was found that the presence of hyperbole, as well as information about the context and speaker, had a reliable impact on participants’ quantitative estimates. Conclusions. The form, context, and speaker of an utterance all appear to influence the estimates that people generated. Such results are consistent with the notion that people cognitively correct hyperbolic utterances using information retrieved from memory to generate estimates about what really happens in the situation or event. Future research should be aimed at designing experiments that can investigate these memory traces more directly.