Professor Jean E. Fox Tree published “How authority affects social evaluations of negotiation words” in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications. This study utilized a mock-Discord approach to investigate the impact of word choice on ascribed personality and its variation by expertise. For example, words like “clearly” and “obviously” made peers, TAs, and faculty appear less friendly and less polite, while the use of “totally, made faculty appear more friendly. One takeaway is that instructors can change impressions by choosing negotiation words carefully and creating positive atmospheres that support learning. Additionally, word choices shape interpretations of online viewpoints and can imply knowledge to increase authority or imply friendliness to gain trust.