Parkinson’s disease and politeness

Prior research suggests that people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) display certain deficiencies in their use of language. In this research, the authors used a role-playing technique to examine their ability to say things politely and to vary their level of politeness as a function of the social context. PD participants, relative to control participants, produced less polite strategies and failed to vary their politeness as a function of the size of the request. In addition, PD participants who were on high-dosage levels, relative to control and low-dosage PD participants, did not vary their politeness as a function of the recipient’s power. Overall, this research demonstrates a deficit in politeness for people with PD, a deficit that most likely plays a role in some of the social deficits that have been demonstrated to occur for people with PD. Potential neurobiological mechanisms of this deficit are discussed. Keywords politeness, Parkinson’s disease, communication debilitating illness (CDI) A fundamental skill for successful language use is the ability to say things withou