How Your Language Affects Your Wealth and Health

How Your Language Affects Your Wealth and Health

We speak the language of health and decide how we rich? The new study by Yale University School of Chan Keith recommendations. The structure of language will affect our judgments and decisions about the future, which could have dramatic long-term consequences.

Has been a lot of research, how do we deal with the future. For example, the famous marshmallow Walter Michel and his colleagues show that can resist the temptation to predict future success. 4-year-olds a marshmallow, they were told that if they did not eat the marshmallow, waiting experimenter returned, they would get two marshmallows instead of one. Subsequent studies have shown that children who are able to wait for a larger reward in the future to become more successful young adults.

Anti immediately pleased that our impulse is often the only way to achieve results is important to us. We want to stay slim, but we also hope that the final pizza. We hope to have a comfortable retirement, but we also want to drive, dazzling car, this dream vacation to go, or let those gorgeous shoes. Some people are better than others in delayed gratification. These people have a better chance of accumulating wealth, maintaining a healthy lifestyle. They are less likely to be impulsive buyers, or smoke, or engage in unsafe sex.

Recent research results show that Chen Shui-bian, an unlikely factor, language, strongly influence our future-oriented behavior. Some languages ​​distinguish strongly present and future. Other languages ​​distinguish only weakly present and future. Chen Shui-bian Recent research shows that people who speak Weak distinguish the language of the present and future to better prepare for the future. They accumulate more wealth, they are better able to maintain their health. These people conceptualize future way similar to the way they conceptualize present. Therefore, the future does not feel very far away, it is easy for them to take action, in accordance with their future interests.

Different languages ​​have different ways of talking about the future. Some languages, such as English, Korean and Russian, asking them to clear the speaker refers to the future. Each English speakers talk about the future, they must use the next marker, such as "will" or "going out" in other languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, German, future mark is not mandatory. Often talk about the future is to understand the meaning from the context similar way. Speak Mandarin, who was going to a seminar might say, "Wo Qu Ting Esa" translates to "I listen to the seminar." Such as English language constantly remind ourselves of the speaker, the distant future events. Speak the language, such as Mandarin future feel closer. Therefore, resist the urge immediate and future investments easier to speak Mandarin.

Chen analyze individual-level data from 76 developed and developing countries. This data includes people's economic decisions, such as whether they save any money last year, language, they say at home, demographic, and cultural factors, such as "Energy conservation is an important cultural value to me." He also analyzed individual-level data on people's retirement assets, smoking and exercise habits, age and general health. Finally, he analyzes the data at the national level, including national savings rate of the country's GDP and GDP growth, the National Population and said the proportion of people of different languages.

People's savings rate is affected by various factors, such as their income, education level, age, religion, their country's legal system, and its cultural values. After accounting for these factors, the impact of language on people's savings rate to be big. Future mandatory language spoken markers, such as English, people may be reduced by 30% of the future to save money. This effect is as large as the impact of unemployment. Saving about 30%, and reduce the possibility of unemployment. .