

How does our language influence the way we think? - DaniFong
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html

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psygnisfive
Psycholinguistics research has repeatedly shown that the amount of influence
is minimal, amounting to, in general, forcing you to pay attention to certain
aspects of the world more so when you're _describing_ using language than when
you're thinking about things in other ways. E.g., you notice color differences
more quickly or more accurately when you have to choose between two words that
your language could have, than if you were picking a tee-shirt. Or you're more
attentive to left and right orientation if your language has words for left
and right _when you're talking about something positioned relative to your
body_ , but if you're just trying to navigate somewhere or looking for
something, your language doesn't affect your thinking.

This effect is precisely what you'd expect, ofcourse, because you get it for
absolutely everything else. If your culinary habits involve avoiding high
fructose corn syrup, when you're looking for food you're going to be quicker
to notice the presence of HFCS than if you're just talking to someone and they
mention the corn industry's current HFCS production rates or whatever.

The generalization: when some cognitive task requires that you pay special
attention to something, you will. Language is not special in this regard.

And that is how language influences the way we think.

