The language you speak could make a huge difference in your future. Keith Chen, a behavioral economist at Yale University, has developed a controversial theory linking language to health-related decision-making, spending habits and the ability to save for the future.
Watch what you say
The language you speak could make a huge difference in your future.
Keith Chen, a behavioral economist at Yale University, has developed a controversial theory linking language to health-related decision-making, spending habits and the ability to save for the future.
He notes in his study that people who speak languages that use different verb formations to express future time tend to exercise less, smoke more, spend more money and save less for retirement than those who speak languages with no special verb formation for future-time expressions.
OK, so what exactly does this mean? How you express present and future actions could have a big impact on what actually happens next week or tomorrow, or even years from now. Sounds far-fetched, right? Well, keep reading.
Chen divides world languages into two categories based on their treatment of future time. He labels one group Strong FTR (strong future-time reference languages) and the other Weak FTR (weak future-time reference languages).
Strong FTR languages use different verb formations to express future time. Weak FTR languages use the present tense to describe current actions as well as future ones. For instance, because English is a Strong FTR, if you had to explain to your professor why you won’t be in class next week, you’d say, “I will be on vacation.”
Will be. As in, going to be. It’s not happening right now, but it will.
In Weak FTR languages, such as German, you’d say, “Ich bin im urlaub,” or: “I am on vacation.” With Weak FTR languages, it’s the context that gives the phrase future meaning.
“I am”—it’s happening. Instead of saying, “I will be on vacation next week,” you’d say, “Next week I’m on vacation.”
What we’ve got then is a bit of a sticky language situation. I will be on vacation next week: But will you, really? It’s conditional and entirely dependent on what happens between now and next week, and you know it. Next week I’m on vacation: Oh, you are? That’s great. Something could change that, but you don’t know. It’s still conditional, but it sounds more likely to really happen.
And that’s what it boils down to: how it sounds and what we think of it.
Back to Chen. How does our grammar influence health-related and financial decision-making? When attempting to save money, for example, how much you actually save completely depends on understanding your future self. That future you is the recipient of the fruits of your (the present you) labor, and you should have an idea what that money will mean to the future you.
Chen states that by verbally—and therefore mentally—separating the present and future in speech and grammar, we separate who we are now from who we will be, which makes it harder to imagine our future situation and subsequently less likely to prepare for it.
Speakers of Weak FTR languages (like German) were likely to save 39 percent more by the time they retired than English speakers. According to Chen’s research, Weak FTR language speakers were 31 percent more likely to save in a year, 24 percent less likely to smoke, 29 percent more likely to exercise and be physically active and 13 percent less likely to be obese.
Though critics claim that other cultural and economic factors contribute more heavily to spending, saving and health habits, I consider Chen’s study to have some merit. Saying “I run tomorrow” rather than “I will run tomorrow” brings the action closer to the present.
This makes you more connected to the future action. It makes you acknowledge that “I” will be doing the action, not a future and separate version of “I.” How many times have you put off a task using the logic that the future you will be better suited for performing it? I, for one, admit to being guilty of this on a regular basis.
It’s how I view New Year’s resolutions. Each year I tell myself that by next New Year’s Eve I will have quit smoking.
When I make this promise, I envision a future version of myself, completely uninhibited by my current lack of self-control, doing the hard work in order to accomplish the goal. I make the promise and forget about it, hoping for the future me to step in at some point and take over.
But what actually occurs is that I continue to make multiple momentary bad decisions that string together until I’m making the same promise another year later.
What Chen’s getting at is simple: Strong FTR speakers (ahem, English speakers) have a tendency to make multiple bad decisions to satisfy their current whims, often at the expense of their future selves. The way we structure our language to deal with future actions could very well affect this decision-making.
So don’t say: “Next year I will have quit smoking.” Instead, say: “Next year, I’m not a smoker.”
