“Out of an abundance of caution” – An overused phrase (2015)

[philwelch]

I used to have a deep revulsion for cliches in general, so I definitely get where this guy is coming from. The thing is, cliches work when they encode concepts in ways that everyone understands. I don't remember the specific example, but I remember one conversation where I was tediously trying to explain and apply a concept that there was already a 3-4 word cliche for, and the person I was talking to impatiently just blurted out the cliche at me. I was annoyed because I was trying to avoid invoking cliches, but I later realized that invoking cliches can actually be an efficient form of communication.

[ethbro]

I noticed NPR commentators in the US (particularly younger, progressive ones) love the adjective "problematic."

Upon reflection in the car, I literally have no idea what information they're trying to convey via its use. It seems obviously defined on its face, but problematically lacking when one tries to characterize it in detail.

Are you saying it's bad? Wrong? Unjust? I have no idea!

[lacker]

Cliches are boring if you’re writing fiction, but often in professional communication it’s okay to be boring if it makes your communication more concise and accurate.

[geofft]

Reminds me of "Tropes are not bad": https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Administrivia/TropesA...

[Stratoscope]

(2015) but very relevant today.

The other phrase that gets my goat is "for your convenience and safety". When I hear that, my first thought is it will be something inconvenient that doesn't improve my safety.

You could combine these two phrases!

"Out of an abundance of caution, we now require you to $SOMETHING for your convenience and safety."

[pensatoio]

That phrase is the epitome of the United Kingdom these days

[matheusmoreira]

> for your convenience and safety

I always assume they mean "for our convenience and safety".

[prostheticvamp]

What is funny is that is not at all my experience right now. The only people I see using the phrase “out of an abundance of caution” are the ones who are massively under reacting, but want to be seen doing something. For instance my gym just sent out an email telling people to make sure they wash their hands when they come to the gym. That email was described as being sent out of “an abundance of caution”.

[dwd]

Yeah, there are times and situations where this is appropriate; now is not one of them. In the current circumstances a 40-70% chance of contracting, and a 5% mortality rate is neither low risk or low impact for an individual.

If you estimated the risk of something as fairly low probability but with a large impact: out of "an abundance of caution" is highly warranted. I would think getting your flu shot each year would qualify saying that.

[elliotpo]

agreed. i teach yoga a lot and that's all i've been dealing with. "out of an abundance of caution we'll be limiting class size to x" (which number does not allow for even four feet of space between students). they're coming around but the phrase is like an eye roll in these cases. it could be asterisk'd with "people get sick, grow the f up"

[josh_fyi]

The legal phrase “Out of an abundance of caution” has a technical meaning: “The fact that I am dealing with this problem should not be taken to imply that I agree that there is any real legal problem or that I am taking any responsibility for one.”

[kazagistar]

Interesting. That doesn't match my informal understand, but actually explains a lot about how it's being used today. There is a certain amount of emphasis on weasely avoidance of liability and not earnestly confronting problems properly baked right in.

[closeparen]

It also has a social peacemaking meaning: "the fact that I'm doing risk management with you is not a reflection of how I feel about you personally."

[dionidium]

The exact opposite is happening with this phrase in the current situation. The only people saying they’re doing something, “out of an abundance of caution” seem really to be saying something like, “this doesn’t seem necessary, but we’re getting some pressure to do it, so we’re doing it,” or they’re saying it about actions that are far too limited given the actual threat.

Here’s an example from Chick-fil-A in my inbox: “We’ve instructed anyone who is not feeling well to stay home out of an abundance of caution...”

That’s not an abundance of caution, for crying out loud! That’s the absolute minimum anybody should be doing in response. It’s likely far too measured.

[kiawe_fire]

It's also a great way to encourage people who may, for example, be skeptical of everything to take actions they otherwise wouldn't.

Think you just have the common cold and won't be doing any harm by going out like normal? Well... out of an abundance of caution, stay home anyway.

Your point is well taken that this is probably the least anybody could be doing, but nonetheless, the actual actions being taken and the end result seems to be positive, which is far more important than the language behind it, IMO.

[will_pseudonym]

"That's a great question." is another one that you won't be able to unhear.

This Freakonomics podcast was what made me aware of it consciously. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/thats-a-great-question-a-ne...

[Thorrez]

As the blog post points out, "Out of an abundance of caution" is used to hide the truth and harm people's freedom. I don't think "That's a great question" has serious problems like that.

[pouta]

As a non-native speaker, what's the problem of complimenting the question?

I genuinely only use it if the question is good enough to get me questioning my self.

[mds]

The first time I remember hearing the phrase was in 2009 when Roberts flubbed the swearing in oath at Obama's inauguration. They later announced that the oath was administered again privately "out of an abundance of caution."

Was that the origin, or was it in use before that?

[hammock]

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22abundance+o...

[Spooky23]

Usually it’s used by attorneys to explain actions that aren’t required by policy or law to demonstrate that actions were taken based on circumstances.

[gnicholas]

It's a common phrase among lawyers, at least.

[duxup]

I think folks who make these announcements or send these emails just don't want to screw up and copy and paste what they see from other emails / announcements that they see. They just don't want to say something wrong / stupid...

As for the whole "risks" thing, some random administrator at a school has zero clue what the real risks are at this point, let alone even medical professionals who only know of confirmed cases.

This is unknown territory for everyone using that phrase and I'm not sure anyone knows what will happen in a day, two days, a week.

It seems like a tall order to ask people to " But let’s be honest with ourselves and others about the risks we face and act accordingly, rather than out of an abundance of caution. " when they don't know the risks seems like a loop right back to "an abundance of caution".

[glup]

I use this as a heuristic for people/institutions with out of date risk models. It seems like it usually refers to a Coronavirus response that is at least 5 days behind the timely response, and often much more than that.

[duxup]

Does anyone have any good risk models / do any administrators for say schools, or anyplace that isn't medical really have any information that would provide them accurate risk models?

I think it is more, they just don't know / there isn't good data for them.

[michaelmrose]

I see your "abundance of caution" and raise you a

"thank you for your anticipated cooperation"

[dwd]

Was a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal involved?

Raise that with a "We apologise for the inconvenience".

[jasonhansel]

A few other similarly annoying phrases:

- "In light of recent events"

- "Due to unforeseen circumstances"

- "It has become necessary"

Am I missing any?

[swixmix]

These sound more like passive voice problems. It might seem silly, but the military has many good resources for writers.

A silly one, for example: https://www.armywriter.com/NCOER/bmw.pdf

It also touches on when not to use passive voice. :)

[duxup]

I always thought those were phrases for.

"Look we don't want to go into the specifics of what did or didn't happen and hell we might not even know .... but here's the bad news...".

[throwaway3neu94]

"Thoughts and prayers"

[jbay808]

"In these difficult economic times"

[jrockway]

"Thanks in advance."

Why not thank me now?

[supernova87a]

Well, when people have no quantitative risk metric to judge their actions by, how else do you suppose they explain their thinking?

Would you have them say something like, "given the risk of inaction causing an incremental 2% infection cases among our customer population, we judged that imposing an added cost of $5 per employee and customer was a reasonable choice"?

[FpUser]

Police favorite: "high rate of speed"

[sk5t]

Oh buddy, I hate "high rate of speed" so much. Speed is already a rate of travel. This is just adding words and blather in an attempt to sound official, and not too far from "utilize" in place of "use," or "methodology" in place of "system." Or "vehicle" for "car."