The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

An interesting paper correlating how language frames the future with how people behave. Shades of General Semantics, and
an interesting nod toward 'language influences perception, perception influences behavior'

http://faculty.som.yale.edu/keithchen/papers/LanguageWorkingPaper.pdf

[Scribbly]

This sounds fascinating. Can't read it now (at work) but will read it after and give my thoughts.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

From the abstract:

Languages differ widely in the ways they partition time. In this paper I test the hypothesis that
languages which grammatically distinguish between present and future events (what linguists call strong-
FTR languages) lead their speakers to take fewer future-oriented actions. First, I show how this prediction
arises naturally when well-documented effects of language on cognition are merged with models of decision
making over time. Then, I show that consistent with this hypothesis, speakers of strong-FTR languages
save less, hold less retirement wealth, smoke more, are more likely to be obese, and suffer worse longrun
health. This is true in every major region of the world and holds even when comparing only
demographically similar individuals born and living in the same country. While not conclusive, the
evidence does not seem to support the most obvious forms of common causation. Implications of these
findings for theories of intertemporal choice are discussed.
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