# Hypocognition

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hypocognition
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hypocognition.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocognition
> Source revision: 1264663864
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Inability to communicate due to no words for a concept

**Hypocognition**, in [cognitive linguistics](/source/Cognitive_linguistics), means missing and being unable to communicate cognitive and linguistic representations because there are no words for particular concepts.[1]

## Origins

The word hypocognition (and its opposite, [hypercognition](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hypercognition&action=edit&redlink=1)) was coined by American [psychiatrist](/source/Psychiatrist) and [anthropologist](/source/Anthropologist) [Robert Levy](/source/Robert_I._Levy) in his 1973 book *Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands*. After 26 months of studying them, Levy described [Tahitians](/source/Tahitians) as having no words to describe sorrow or guilt, resulting in people who had suffered personal losses describing themselves as feeling sick or strange instead of sad.[2][3] Levy believed the Tahitians' lack of frames for thinking about and expressing grief contributed to their high suicide rate.[4] He believed that a balance between hypercognition and hypocognition was culturally most desirable.[5]

## Usage

Hypocognition is a phrase commonly used in linguistics. In 2004 [George Lakoff](/source/George_Lakoff) used it to describe political [progressives](/source/Progressives) in the United States, saying that relative to conservatives they suffer from "massive hypocognition," which he described as the lack of having a progressive philosophy framed around the progressive core values of empathy and responsibility such as "effective government" versus "less government" or "broader prosperity" versus "free markets."[6]

## Effects

Hypocognition has been blamed for preventing the practical application of [evidence-based medicine](/source/Evidence-based_medicine) in areas where [frames](/source/Framing_(social_sciences)) (contextual and presentational influences on perceptions of reality) obscure facts.[7] More generally, experts often overuse their own expertise: e.g. cardiologist diagnose a heart problem when the actual problem is something else.[8][9]

## See also

- [Rectification of names](/source/Rectification_of_names)

## References

- [Psychology portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Psychology)
- [Linguistics portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Linguistics)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Hollan, Douglas (2000). "Constructivist Models of Mind, Contemporary Psychoanalysis, and the Development of Culture Theory". *American Anthropologist*. **102** (3): 538–550, See p. 541. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1525/aa.2000.102.3.538](https://doi.org/10.1525%2Faa.2000.102.3.538).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Levy, Robert I. (1975). *Tahitians: mind and experience in the Society Islands* (Pbk. ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 324. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0226476070](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0226476070).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Shweder, Richard A., ed. (1995). *Culture theory: essays on mind, self, and emotion*. Cambridge University Press. pp. 227–8. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0521318310](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0521318310).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Ottenheimer, Harriet Joseph (2009). *The anthropology of language: an introduction to linguistic anthropology* (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. p. 41. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0495508847](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0495508847).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Ferrara, Nadia (1998). *Emotional expression among Cree Indians: the role of pictorial representations in the assessment of psychological mindedness*. London: Jessica Kingsley. p. 38. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1853026560](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1853026560).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Lakoff, George (2004). [*Don't think of an elephant!: know your values and frame the debate: the essential guide for progressives*](https://archive.org/details/dontthinkofeleph00lako/page/24). White River Junction VT: Chelsea Green. p. [24](https://archive.org/details/dontthinkofeleph00lako/page/24). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1931498715](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1931498715).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Mariotto, A. (2010). "Hypocognition and evidence-based medicine". *Internal Medicine Journal*. **40** (1): 80–82. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1111/j.1445-5994.2009.02086.x](https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1445-5994.2009.02086.x). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [20561370](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20561370). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [24519238](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:24519238).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Wu, Kaidi; Dunning, David (9 August 2018). ["Unknown Unknowns: The Problem of Hypocognition"](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/unknown-unknowns-the-problem-of-hypocognition/). *[Scientific American](/source/Scientific_American)*. Retrieved 12 August 2018.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Wu, Kaidi; Dunning, David (2018). "Hypocognition: Making sense of the landscape beyond one's conceptual reach". *Review of General Psychology*. **22** (1): 22–25. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1037/gpr0000126](https://doi.org/10.1037%2Fgpr0000126).

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Hypocognition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocognition) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocognition?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.