Words against a group can carry force equal to physical attacks for targets.

Evidence

Allport also recognized the deleterious impact of antilocutions on targets. He wrote, “The basic feeling of members of minority groups who are the object of prejudice is one of insecurity … ‘I wait in fear for an anti-Jewish remark’” (1954/1979, p. 140). A more complex facet of Allport’s perspective is his notion of verbal realism, or the tendency for responses to words to be as strong as the responses to the things represented by the words. This proposition is illustrated by Allport’s description of ethnophaulisms as “fighting words” that evoke as much response in their targets as actual physical attacks. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1263

Categorization

• DEFINE: Verbal realism — the doctrine that word and referent evoke equal response — gets defined here and is a load-bearing concept for the chapter.
• XREF: Allport’s ‘fighting words’/verbal realism connects to First Amendment ‘fighting words’ doctrine and to modern research on verbal microaggressions and their psychological impact on targets.