Why “Birds have hollow bones” can teach broad facts despite different interpretations

Three experiments support the idea that generic statements adapt to what people already believe about a category and its traits.

Abstract editorial illustration accompanying the article: Why “Birds have hollow bones” can teach broad facts despite different interpretations

Editorial illustration — not from the study.

Generic statements such as “Birds have hollow bones” describe properties of categories without specifying exactly how common those properties are. Researchers compared several explanations for how people understand these statements, including models in which generics have a fixed meaning and one based directly on conceptual knowledge.

Across three experiments, the researchers measured and changed participants’ prior beliefs about categories and properties. The uncertain-threshold model, in which people use their prior beliefs to help determine what counts as widespread, best explained the participants’ different interpretations of novel generic statements.

How people read generic claims

The researchers found that the uncertain-meaning model best explained the highly varied interpretations participants gave to novel generic statements across three experiments. The experiments both measured and manipulated participants’ prior beliefs. The result is consistent with the idea that a generic statement’s meaning depends partly on what people already believe about the property and category. Together with earlier findings that the same model explains differences in whether people endorse generic statements, the results suggest that generics can transmit knowledge between speakers while allowing for variation in interpretation.

Why flexible language matters

Generic language is common and helps people learn about categories, but its flexibility has made it difficult to describe quantitatively. The findings support a single account in which people’s prior beliefs help resolve how broadly a generic statement should be understood. That offers a way to explain how speakers can communicate general knowledge without assigning every generic statement one fixed, precise meaning.

Evidence and open questions

The evidence comes from three experiments and comparisons between quantitative models of generic meaning. Participants’ prior beliefs were measured and manipulated, allowing the researchers to test whether those beliefs helped explain different interpretations. The abstract does not report the number or characteristics of participants, and the experiments focused on novel generic statements rather than all forms of everyday conversation. The findings therefore support this account in the tested settings, but the abstract does not establish how well it applies across languages, cultures or real-world interactions.

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