(Daily Mail)        Kids sometimes get in trouble for using the word "yeah" when they mean "yes," but according to a recent study, the word is highly successful when used in meetings.        Been Kim and Cynthia Rudin, statisticians from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studied 95 words used in meetings and found that "yeah" was the most persuasive.Other words likely to be convincing are "start" and, oddly enough, "meeting."So suggesting a meeting while already in a meeting will be met with universal approval?Actually, according the Kim and Rudin, the reason these words are successful is because they build consensus and avoid criticism.For example, they write, prefacing a suggestion with the word "yeah" indicates agreement with a previous idea, which will be more likely to garner the approval of others who made the suggestion.       "... framing a suggestion as an agreement with a previous suggestion increases its chances of being accepted. That is, if the idea comes across as if it were in line with previous thoughts by others, the suggestion has a higher chance of being accepted," they wrote.The word "meeting" is useful when used as a way of avoiding criticism.For example, Kim and Rudin note, "The word 'meeting' often appears in suggestions about what not to discuss: 'Or maybe this is something for the next meeting,' ... Our hypothesis is that suggesting that a topic belong to a later meeting may be a way to gently change the topic or move the current meeting along. It can be used instead of a negative assessment of a previous suggestion."Meeting image