While thinking about what causes people to treat money differently, behavioural economist M. Keith Chen hit on a fascinating idea. “Why is it that countries with seemingly similar economies and institutions can display radically different savings behaviour?” he asked in a 2012 TED talk. Chen’s idea was that the languages we speak alter the way we think about the future, making us more or less inclined to behave with the future in mind.
The idea that languages can shape the mind, and therefore culture, is an idea with a long tradition. It’s still a subject of debate, with evidence supporting the idea ranging from extremely shaky to somewhat reasonable. Chen’s interest was in how different languages express ideas about the future. For example, English uses auxiliary verbs to mark future tense, like “It will rain tomorrow.” In German, the verb stays the same in both the present and future tenses: “Morgen regnet es,” translates directly to “It rains tomorrow.”
In a paper published in 2013, Chen reports that speakers of languages with no separate future tense markings showed more forward-thinking behaviour. That is, they were more inclined to save money, avoid smoking, avoid obesity, and practice safe sex than speakers of languages that have entirely different markings for future and present tense. The explanation he offers is that mentally connecting the present and future (like German speakers do) makes people more inclined to behave with the future in mind.
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