Best-Worst Scaling of Hype in Biomedical Research: Building an Intensity Lexicon of Promotional Adjectives

Abstract

Promotional language, or "hype", is increasingly common in biomedical research reporting. Adjectives such as groundbreaking, robust, and impactful can engage readers but also risk imposing value judgements and undermining objectivity. Detecting and assessing such language requires distinguishing degrees of promotional intensity (e.g., new < novel < groundbreaking < revolutionary), yet no such graded resource exists. We present an intensity-scaled lexicon of 303 promotional adjectives attested in biomedical writing across eight evaluative domains (e.g. IMPORTANCE, NOVELTY, RIGOUR). Ratings were obtained through Best–Worst Scaling (BWS) with human participants evaluating adjectives for promotional strength in the context of scientific research reporting. We refer to this as the Hyplex resource (Hype Lexicon). The ratings show high internal consistency (r = 0.87; 95% CI [0.85, 0.89]) and correlate most strongly with arousal and dominance in the NRC VAD Lexicon, suggesting that promotional intensity aligns more with reader activation and perceptions of assertiveness than simple positivity. We also release an online BWS platform integrated with the R package bwsTools to support intensity-scaling research in other domains.

Resources

Details