Elisabeth Wehling

Elisabeth Wehling

Elisabeth Wehling, PhD, is a cognitive linguist, author, speaker and consultant. She received her MA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where she currently works on the role of language for social, economic and political decision-making with an emphasis on framing, embodied metaphor and morality. Wehling consults industry and government entities across the globe, is a frequent commentator in the media and is author of the Spiegel-Online bestseller Politisches Framing (2016, v. Halem) as well as co-author of The Little Blue Book (2012, Simon & Schuster) and Your Brain's Politics (2016, Imprint Academic) with George Lakoff. In 2019, Wehling received the Familie-Kluge-Stiftung HumanAward 2019 at the University of Cologne for outstanding commitment to educating the public on her scientific field.  

The values we ascribe to words determine how we communicate our  messages and debate our positions.

Think of how the words “Tax burden” make you feel. Now, what about “tax responsibility”? Do you prefer  “refugee crisis” or “humanitarian...