In the 1930s, the American linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf put forward the hypothesis that people of different mother tongues perceive the world differently. According to linguistic relativity or Whorfianism, both the grammatical structure and the vocabulary of a language influence the way how people think. Proponents of political correctness, aiming to ban the usage of certain words that are considered to be derogatory or discriminatory, ultimately base their ideas on Whorfianism.

Saying “little person” instead of “midget” may have an impact on how one thinks about people who have the medical condition of dwarfism.

These ideas were picked up by other groups as well. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia prohibited the usage of the personal pronoun “I”. In this way, they wanted to force people to see themselves as part of a collective rather than as individuals. There are also instances of Whorfianism in fictional literature. In his famous novel “1984”, George Orwell imagined a society in which the government banned subversive words, making the associated thoughts unthinkable.

Assuming that Whorf had a point, would it not to be expected that language also influences the economic behavior of people? More.

See: The Financial

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