A molecular
polarizability effect occurring by the inductive mechanism of electron displacement. The consideration
of such an effect and the descriptive term have been regarded as obsolescent or even
obsolete, but in recent years theoretical approaches have reintroduced substituent
polarizability as a factor governing reactivity, etc. and its parametrization has been proposed.
Source:
PAC, 1994, 66, 1077
(Glossary of terms used in physical organic chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1994))
on page 1125