Arts & Humanities

There are some really offensive words stored in our mental lexicon. And regardless of whether we use these terms or not, we know that they have some particular features and effects that ordinary words do not. We know, for instance, that slur terms are offensive, and that some are more offensive than others. I conducted an empirical study with German native speakers to find out more about these terms and the differences in their offensiveness.

Historian and sociologist William Edward Burghardt Du Bois is one of the most important African-American activists of the 20th century. He was a prolific author and public intellectual and co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).