There is an unstated assumption here that the words chosen map to some internal level of confidence. I don’t believe that is the case for most people. Saying something is “certain” vs “likely” vs “will happen” is driven more by the immediate external factors (eg did the previous speaker just use the word “certain”—even on a completely different topic?) than any long term internal consistent reflections of internal confidence.
I mostly agree with this comment. I do think there are broad categories we can put words / phrases (and probably body language and other paralinguistics) into, which can give us meaningful evidence of the other person’s confidence.
There is an unstated assumption here that the words chosen map to some internal level of confidence. I don’t believe that is the case for most people. Saying something is “certain” vs “likely” vs “will happen” is driven more by the immediate external factors (eg did the previous speaker just use the word “certain”—even on a completely different topic?) than any long term internal consistent reflections of internal confidence.
I mostly agree with this comment. I do think there are broad categories we can put words / phrases (and probably body language and other paralinguistics) into, which can give us meaningful evidence of the other person’s confidence.