The same three words can have different prices
Three words, two rooms.
The same three words can have different prices.
"I don't know."
In one organisation they're almost free:
Someone says them, the room adjusts, and the conversation carries on without anyone breaking stride.
In another, they cost more:
The room pauses. The attention shifts from the uncertainty to the person who said it.
Nothing about the words changed.
Only what the organisation had taught them they would cost.