Summary.When presented with abstract notions through the verbal media of books, newspapers, talks, TV and radio, people often produce quite erroneous generalisations. Thus the notionaggressioncan evoke, besides a true generalisationinhumanity, a particularisationimperialism, a transductiveexploitation, and an associated but non‐essential attributedetestable, each of the last three being mistaken as a notion more general than the original concept. These aberrations may be more marked, the more persuasive the medium and the more emotionally involved the listener or recorder.This paper describes a method of investigating such possible trends among young people and adults and reveals their extent in samples of graduates, undergraduates, further education students and secondary pupils. A test of generalising, embodying the alternatives set out above, revealed that whilst 90 per cent of students in all groups correctly responded to the concrete items, their responses to the abstract items ranged from some 80–60 per cent. The implications of these findings are discussed against the possible intellectual confusion arising in less sophisticated adults when they encounter ideas in verbal experience and discou