People answer what they think you mean, not what you say

Evidence

The semiological influence leads to the emphasis on the key role of the (largely unconscious) linguistic, visual, and cultural codes that underlie the communications process. In a fundamentally transformative reversal, this emphasis shifts the question of misunderstanding from being a marginal kink in a communications process otherwise presumed to be smooth to a central place in the analysis—where differential understandings of any message are seen as the norm. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 759 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Descriptions can become true because people act on them believing they are true — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 577; Audiences can decode the same message in a globally contrary or oppositional way; Misunderstanding is the norm rather than an anomaly in communication — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 759 (+4 more)

Related

• Messages are polysemic, so decoding never guarantees preferred intended meaning. (similarity 0.88)
• Communication misunderstanding is the norm, not a marginal defect. (similarity 0.87)
• Misunderstanding is the norm rather than an anomaly in communication (similarity 0.86)
• Apparent audience ‘misunderstanding’ often signals departure from dominant preferred codes. (similarity 0.85)
• Misunderstanding, not clarity, is the norm in media communication (similarity 0.81)
• Decoded meanings, not messages, are what produce effects (similarity 0.79)
• Communication succeeds only through shared contextual beliefs that cannot be fully formalized (similarity 0.79)
• Message misunderstandings often reflect viewers rejecting the dominant code, not communication failure (similarity 0.79)
• All communication is necessarily a partial selection from inner reality (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Misunderstanding is the norm rather than an anomaly in communication #corroborates (0.90) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 759
• Apparent audience ‘misunderstanding’ often signals departure from dominant preferred codes. #corroborates (0.86)
• Audiences can decode the same message in a globally contrary or oppositional way #corroborates (0.85)
• Descriptions can become true because people act on them believing they are true #corroborates (0.82) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 577
• Language enables meanings rather than passively carrying them #expands (0.78)
• Strangers are perceived by type rather than as individuals #corroborates (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 401