You vs. Me: The Effect of Primary Language Verb Conjugation on Tolerance Attitudes and Altruistic Behaviours

Abstract

Language is recognised as a critical means of communicating thoughts and emotions, but we still have much to learn about the extent to which a person’s linguistic background can influence the way they think and perceive the world. Evidence in favour of the linguistic relativity hypothesis has found language to influence people’s colour perception, open-mindedness, and saving behaviour. This paper seeks to add to this debate by testing whether the verb conjugation structure of respondents’ primary language shapes how they relate to other people around them (measured as their reported tolerance attitudes and altruistic behaviours), using responses from the most recent wave of the World Values Survey. We find speakers of languages which do not distinguish between persons in their verb conjugation to be more likely to value unselfishness, less averse to living next to others different from themselves, more accepting of immigrants, and more likely to care for the environment. Except for the last conclusion about the environment, these findings remain robust at the within-country level of analysis and when controlling for cultural confounds.