Those who engage in misleading language pose the danger of misrepresenting themselves. On a social level, this leads to misguided relationships. Others will interpret the misleading language as a genuine representation of the speaker's ideas or personality. This creates a conflict between the speaker's individual and social personalities. Over a prolonged period, the use of misleading language creates a mental condition for the speaker known as cognitive dissonance, which describes a situation in which the mind holds on to two or more conflicting ideas at once.
When used in politics, misleading language leads to dangerous situations for the public. By using vague words such as "may" and "possibly," politicians are able to make bold while questionable claims without fully committing to the statement. Such statements are seen in political smear campaigns as well as questionable government operations, where the misleading language is intended to mislead the majority of the public without stating an outright falsity. Jargon -- or specialized, technical language -- is also used in such political cases to shroud the true meaning of a statement from the general public.
Pseudoscience is a practice that is represented as scientifically based while not possessing an actual scientific foundation. Examples include telekinesis, extra-sensory perception, and homeopathy. In medical cases such as the latter, misleading language is used by practitioners to convince potential patients of the practice's scientific veracity. This leads to the danger of misdiagnosis as well as untreated illnesses. A patient who is dangerously ill and is misled by the language of a pseudoscience might forgo scientific medical treatment and thus develop more serious illnesses.
Misleading language is used in advertising schemes to misrepresent a product or company. One case of this is known as the black and white fallacy, in which the advertisement builds a false dichotomy in the viewer's mind. For example, an advertisement for baby food that uses the slogan "Responsible parents choose us" implies that parents who purchase other brands are irresponsible. Not only does this psychologically exploit consumers for their money, it eventually develops a cognitive dissonance in the mind of the viewer due to a conflict between the consumer's self-image and the consumer image as presented in the advertisement.