Article

How Cross-Linguistic Differences in the Grammaticalization of Future Time Reference Influence Intertemporal Choices

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Abstract

According to Chen’s (2013) Linguistic Savings Hypothesis (LSH), our native language affects our economic behavior. We present three studies investigating how cross-linguistic differences in the grammaticalization of future-time reference (FTR) affect intertemporal choices. In a series of decision scenarios about finance and health issues, we let speakers of altogether five languages that represent FTR with increasing strength, i.e., Chinese, German, Danish, Spanish and English, choose between hypothetical sooner-smaller and later-larger reward options. While the LSH predicts a present-bias that increases with FTR-strength, our decision-makers preferred later-larger options and this future-bias increased with FTR-strength. In multiple regressions, the FTR-strength effect persisted when controlled for socio-economic and cultural differences. We discuss why our findings deviate from the LSH and ask in how far the FTR-strength effect represents a habitual constitution of linguistic relativity or an instance of online decision framing.

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... The initial experimental research that materialized from this call for (experimental) action, mainly analyzed behavioral economic outcomes related to intertemporal choice preferences (J. I. Chen et al., 2019;Sutter et al., 2018;Thoma & Tytus, 2018). Intertemporal choice preference thereby refers to preferential differences in decision-making behavior for whether people prefer later and larger rewards or sooner and smaller rewards. ...
... However, the researchers were not able to settle this debate, as some researchers found evidence for the LSH (Sutter et al., 2018), and others found results contradicting it (J. I. Chen et al., 2019;Thoma & Tytus, 2018). Thus, the LSH remained contested. ...
... Although a formal classification of grammaticalization of FTR constitutes an initial reference point when designing cross-linguistic experiments, different classifications do exist, from dichotomizing FTR (e.g., high vs. low FTR; see M. K. to defining FTR as a continuous variable (e.g., differentiating between high and low FTR based on topographical features of languages; see Thoma & Tytus, 2018). Importantly, we would argue that these boundaries are not precise, as the classification of some languages have been controversial (see, for example, Radford (1997) for further discussion on English). ...
... It is important to note the presence of within-language variation as to the obligatory nature of FTR in a given context 1 . Thus, rather than a binary categorization, the FTR of languages is more likely a continuum that ranges from weak to strong (Thieroff, 2000;Thoma & Tytus, 2018). ...
... I. Chen, He & Riyanto, 2019). These results suggests that the LSH may be unstable or even a statistical artifact (Thoma & Tytus, 2018). ...
... Also, Chinese allows for the use of an additional auxiliary to plan for future (e.g., 我下个月将会存钱, "I next month will [an additional auxiliary] save money"). Thus, there is still some within-language variation in how obligatory a FTR mark is in a given context (Thoma & Tytus, 2018). ...
Article
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Since globalization, using second languages (L2) to make decisions about future is more common than ever. In this study, we tested the merged effect of two language features, i.e., the future-time reference (FTR) and L2, on intertemporal decision and its indirect mediators, future orientation, and subjective future perception. As a pair of languages with different FTR, English (strong-FTR) has a clear grammatical separation between present and future, while Chinese (weak-FTR) does not. Here, Chinese first language (L1) speakers made intertemporal decisions using either Chinese (L1) or English (L2). Across three studies (N = 1022) and an internal meta-analysis, we found that using a strong-FTR L2 did not change participants’ intertemporal preference but did reduce their future orientation. These findings highlight a holistic perspective merging language features, outcome variables and measurement methods. These findings also imply a need for caution to use second language as nudge strategy in intertemporal decision-making.
... A number of other studies attest to the conclusion that FTR status is a reliable predictor of intertemporal behavior (S. Chen, Cronqvist, Ni, & Zhang, 2017;Chi, Su, Tang, & Xu, 2018;Galor et al., 2016;Liang et al., 2018;Lien & Zhang, 2020;Sutter, Angerer, Glätzle-rützler, & Lergetporer, 2015;Thoma & Tytus, 2018). Although there are various statistical concerns with the robustness of these associations (Gotti, Roberts, Fasan, & Robertson, 2021;Roberts, Winters, & Chen, 2015), practically all studies make simplified assumptions about FTR typology. ...
... If the English case generalizes, this suggests that a "modal" account could plausibly explain many reported results (K. Chen, 2013;Chen et al., 2017;Chi et al., 2018;Figlio et al., 2016;Galor et al., 2016;Guin, 2017;Hübner & Vannoorenberghe, 2015b, 2015aLiang et al., 2018;Lien & Zhang, 2020;Pérez & Tavits, 2017;Roberts et al., 2015;Sutter et al., 2015;Thoma & Tytus, 2018). ...
... They had participants make intertemporal choices, which were framed in either the present or future tense, that is, "you get $10 in a week" versus "you will get $10 in a week." In a series of several experiments which used a range of distances, such manipulations had no effect on participants' time preferences (a similar result is reported in Thoma & Tytus, 2018). This suggests that future tenses do not encode temporal distance, regardless of the temporal distances involved. ...
Article
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Previous research on linguistic relativity and economic decisions hypothesized that speakers of languages with obligatory tense marking of future time reference (FTR) should value future rewards less than speakers of languages which permit present tense FTR. This was hypothesized on the basis of obligatory linguistic marking (e.g., will) causing speakers to construe future events as more temporally distal and thereby to exhibit increased “temporal discounting”: the subjective devaluation of outcomes as the delay until they will occur increases. However, several aspects of this hypothesis are incomplete. First, it overlooks the role of “modal” FTR structures which encode notions about the likelihood of future outcomes (e.g., might). This may influence “probability discounting”: the subjective devaluation of outcomes as the probability of their occurrence decreases. Second, the extent to which linguistic structures are subjectively related to temporal or probability discounting differences is currently unknown. To address these, we elicited FTR language and subjective ratings of temporal distance and probability from speakers of English, which exhibits strongly grammaticized FTR, and Dutch, which does not. Several findings went against the predictions of the previous hypothesis: Framing an FTR statement in the present (“Ellie arrives later on”) versus the future tense (“…will arrive…”) did not affect ratings of temporal distance; English speakers rated future statements as relatively more temporally proximal than Dutch speakers; and English and Dutch speakers rated future tenses as encoding high certainty, which suggests that obligatory future tense marking might result in less discounting. Additionally, compared with Dutch speakers, English speakers used more low‐certainty terms in general (e.g., may) and as a function of various experimental factors. We conclude that the prior cross‐linguistic observations of the link between FTR and psychological discounting may be caused by the connection between low‐certainty modal structures and probability discounting, rather than future tense and temporality.
... Thus, across disciplines, how linguistic cues might or might not shape intertemporal preferences is an important and unresolved question, and research on these questions is limited by the fact that cross-language comparisons involve multiple confounded but relevant differences (Thoma & Tytus, 2018). In fact, subsequent research has argued that at least some of the correlational relationship in Chen (2013) is explained by shared culture (Roberts et al., 2015). ...
... Extending these findings, subsequent research found that firms located in countries with futureless languages had higher precautionary cash holdings (Chen et al., 2017), and firms that used less futured writing in their annual reports generated above-average positive returns (Karapandza, 2016). The same correlational relationship between futureless language and patience in intertemporal choices (on an index comprised of time discounting tasks and attitudinal measures) has been replicated across 76 countries (Falk et al., 2018; see also Sutter et al., 2015; c.f., Thoma & Tytus, 2018). Pérez and Tavits (2017) provided an initial causal test of a contextual short-term effect of the language used during decision making on farsightedness. ...
... The lack of sensitivity to tense in this study is consistent with the inferential hypotheses but would not be predicted by the priming hypothesis. This result is also consistent with the results of Study 3 in Thoma and Tytus (2018), which found that the choice of a sooner-smaller option in an intertemporal question with objective delays did not differ by the tense of the option. ...
Article
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Prior research has shown that the way information is communicated can impact decisions, consistent with some forms of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that language shapes thought. In particular, language structure-specifically the form of verb tense in that language-can predict savings behaviors among speakers of different languages. We test the causal effect of language structure encountered during financial decision-making, by manipulating the verb tense (within a single language) used to communicate intertemporal tradeoffs. We find that verb tense can significantly shift choices between options, owing to tense-based inferences about timing. However, the spontaneous use of verb tense when making choices occurs only in the complete absence of other timing cues and is eliminated if even ambiguous or nondiagnostic time cues are present, although prompted timing inferences persist. We test between multiple competing accounts for how verb tense differentially impacts timing inferences and choices. We find evidence for a cue-based account, such that the presence of other cues blocks the spontaneous use of verb tense in making intertemporal decisions, consistent with the "Good Enough" proposal in psycholinguistics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... It is important to note the presence of within-language variation as to the obligatory nature of FTR in a given context 1 . Thus, rather than a binary categorization, the FTR of languages is more likely a continuum that ranges from weak to strong (Thieroff, 2000;Thoma & Tytus, 2018). ...
... I. Chen, He, & Riyanto, 2019). These results suggests that the LSH may be unstable or even a statistical artifact (Thoma & Tytus, 2018). ...
... Also, Chinese allows for the use of an additional auxiliary to plan for future (e.g., 我下个月将会存钱, "I next month will [an additional auxiliary] save money"). Thus, there is still some withinlanguage variation in how obligatory a FTR mark is in a given context (Thoma & Tytus, 2018). ...
Preprint
Full-text available
Since globalization, using second languages (L2) to make decisions about future is more common than ever. In this study, we tested the merged effect of two language features, i.e., the future-time reference (FTR) and L2, on intertemporal decision and its indirect mediators, future orientation, and subjective future perception. As a pair of languages with different FTR, English (strong-FTR) has a clear grammatical separation between present and future, while Chinese (weak-FTR) does not. Here, Chinese first language (L1) speakers made intertemporal decisions using either Chinese (L1) or English (L2). Across three studies (N=1022) and an internal meta-analysis, we found that using a strong-FTR L2 did not change participants’ intertemporal preference but did reduce their future orientation. These findings highlight a holistic perspective merging language features, outcome variables and measurement methods. These findings also imply a need for caution to use second language as nudge strategy in intertemporal decision-making.
... Although a formal classification of grammaticalization of FTR constitutes an initial reference point when designing cross-linguistic experiments, different classifications do exist, from dichotomizing FTR (e.g., high vs. low FTR; see Chen, 2013) to defining FTR as a continuous variable (e.g., differentiating between high and low FTR based on topographical features of languages; see Thoma & Tytus, 2018). Importantly, we would argue that these boundaries are not precise, as the classification of some languages have been controversial (see, for example, Radford, 1997 for further discussion on English). ...
... In fact, temporal discounting has even been proposed as a potential behavioral marker for addiction (Bickel et al., 2014), as those suffering from diverse addictions have been shown to prefer short-term over long-term rewards than those without any addiction (Bickel et al., 2007), except for coffee addiction ( Jarmolowicz et al., 2015). Thoma and Tytus (2018) adapted the temporal discounting paradigm to investigate the effect of the grammaticalization of the future on perceiving future outcomes. Unlike previous studies, they operationalized FTR strength as a continuous variable and examined five languages ranging from a low degree of FTR to a high degree of FTR (in increasing FTR order: Chinese, German, Danish, Spanish, English). ...
... There are no clear criteria to identify languages with a high degree of FTR: some studies categorize periphrastic future constructions as a high degree of FTR (e.g., Dahl & Velupillai, 2013;Galor et al., 2018), whereas other studies use the general marking of the verb tense to characterize a high degree of FTR (e.g., Chen, 2013;Kim & Filimonau, 2017;Mavisakalyan et al., 2018). Future research may consider grammaticalization of the future as a continuum (e.g., Thoma & Tytus, 2018) and adapt the categorization of the degree of FTR to suit a specific research question. ...
Article
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Considering how fundamental and ubiquitous temporal information is in discourse (e.g., Zwaan & Radvansky, 1998), it seems rather surprising that the impact of the grammaticalization of the future on the way we perceive the future has only been scarcely studied. We argue that this may be due to its rather abstract nature and how it has been previously operationalized. In this review, we lay the foundation for studying the impact of the grammaticalization of the future on mental representations of the future by taking an interdisciplinary perspective, connecting cognitive sciences, linguistics, psycholinguistics, economics, and health psychology. More specifically, we argue that experimental psycholinguistics, combined with more applied domains, constitute a promising research avenue.
... The degree of grammaticalisation of a language's FTR (e.g. strong-and weak-FTR) affects individual speakers' cognitive processes-and, thus, their life-related goals and decisions (J€ aggi et al., 2020;Lien and Zhang, 2020;Thoma and Tytus, 2018). Someone who speaks a strong-FTR language is linguistically predisposed to conceptualise a future event in a distinctly different way from someone who speaks a weak-FTR language (Lien and Zhang, 2020; Thoma and Tytus, 2018). ...
... strong-and weak-FTR) affects individual speakers' cognitive processes-and, thus, their life-related goals and decisions (J€ aggi et al., 2020;Lien and Zhang, 2020;Thoma and Tytus, 2018). Someone who speaks a strong-FTR language is linguistically predisposed to conceptualise a future event in a distinctly different way from someone who speaks a weak-FTR language (Lien and Zhang, 2020; Thoma and Tytus, 2018). The underlying psychological mechanism connecting the grammaticalisation of the FTR International Marketing Review (strong-FTR vs weak-FTR) and an individual's cognition and behaviour can be understood through the thinking-for-speaking process (Slobin, 1987): As an individual prepares to say something about a specific topic or event, he or she concentrates on the information highlighted by the features of the language he or she is speaking, such as whether they need to use a grammatical marker for the FTR (J€ aggi et al., 2020;McNeill and Duncan, 2000). ...
Preprint
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Purpose Linguists classify the world’s languages into two types: futured and futureless. Futured languages (e.g. French) require speakers to grammatically mark future events, a construction that is optional in futureless languages such as German. This treatise examines whether the grammatical structure of the predominant language in a given country explains firms’ propensity to engage in controversial marketing and environmental management practices. This is expected to happen because a speaker’s future time perspective and temporal discounting vary depending on the type of language used. Design/methodology/approach The sample period for this research was from 2001 to 2020. The sample of the study consists of 5,275 firms representing 47 countries. The sample is comprised of firms from 29 countries where the predominant language is a strong future time reference (FTR) language and 18 countries with a weak-FTR language. The maximum number of firm-country-year observations of the study was 39,956. This study employed multi-level mixed effects modelling as well as other relevant estimation techniques such as random effect panel regression, ordinary least square regression and two-stage least square regression. Findings This research empirically demonstrates that firms based in countries where the predominant language requires speakers to grammatically differentiate between the present and the future – known as strong-FTR or futured languages – engage more often in controversial marketing- and environment-related practices than those located in countries where the predominant language does not necessarily require grammatical differentiation between the present and the future (known as weak-FTR or futureless languages). Practical implications The findings are important for managers of firms with foreign subsidiary operations: top management teams of such firms need to be aware that their foreign subsidiaries’ propensity to engage in controversial marketing and environmental management practices varies depending on the predominant language those subsidiaries use. Also, firms located in countries with weak-FTR languages need to be more rigorous in their selection process when considering forming a joint venture or acquiring a firm in countries with strong-FTR languages. Originality/value The current research enriches the burgeoning body of literature on the effect of language on corporate decision-making. It extends the body of knowledge on the impact of language structure on firms’ inclination to engage in controversial marketing and environmental management practices.
... Despite the inherent uncertainty of speaking about the future or the present, talking about the future is different from discussing the past or present. In European languages, there are several levels of certainty, denoted by the likelihood that an event will happen in the future [3]. When faced with uncertainty in a predictive context, linguistic devices vary in terms of how they mark the future. ...
... When faced with uncertainty in a predictive context, linguistic devices vary in terms of how they mark the future. When referring to very likely future events, most European languages use the present tense, but when faced with uncertainty in a prediction context, the linguistic device is used differently [3]. Future Time Reference (FTR) can refer to an event that will take place in the future and has the capability to use a variety of linguistic devices to refer to the event. ...
Article
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According to Jaggis experiment, there is no significant difference in future perception between two cultures with different future-time references. The proposed study will use the same procedure and measurement as Jaggis experiment to provide a different perspective that for cultures that vary a lot in future-time references, there might be a significant difference between future perceptions. We hypothesize that cultures that have a weak future-time reference will perceive that the future is closer to the present and that cultures have a strong future-time reference.
... In the present study, we examine the impact of the grammaticalization of the future, that is, the grammatical manifestations of how to refer to the future, and how these grammaticalizations may impact our representations of future events. This approach differs from other experimental studies within the field of future time reference and temporal discounting [14,15], in that we try to unravel the possible underlying cognitive processes involved from a psycholinguistic perspective, as delineated in our previous theoretical work [16]. In a nutshell, we argued that thinking about the future is an activity we engage in, on average, every 16 minutes [17] and that it can affect different mental health outcomes [18]. ...
... The impact of the LSH is still unsettled given the different results reported by various experimental studies [14,15,33]. Thus, our goal in the present study is to reassess the LSH and its assumed effects on temporal discounting and delayed gratification from an experimental psycholinguistic approach, as extensively discussed in Jäggi et al. [16]. ...
Article
Full-text available
Psycholinguistic approaches that study the effects of language on mental representations have ignored a potential role of the grammaticalization of the future (i.e., how the future manifests linguistically). We argue that the grammaticalization of the future may be an important aspect, as thinking about the future is omnipresent in our everyday life. The aim of this study was to experimentally manipulate the degree of future time references (i.e., present and future verb tense and temporal adverbials) to address their impact on the perceived location of future events. Across four experiments, two in French and two in German, no effect was found, irrespective of our verb and adverbial manipulations, and contrary to our hypotheses. Bayes factors confirmed that our null effects were not due to a lack of power. We present one of the first empirical accounts investigating the role of the grammaticalization of the future on effects of mental representations. We discuss possible reasons for these null results and illustrate further avenues for future research.
... Secondly, it may be difficult to eliminate the influence of cultural differences. Previous cross-cultural analyses of temporal discounting behavior have generated contradictory results (Thoma & Tytus, 2018), thus rendering the results indefensible when taking cultural differences into account. Lastly, empirical evidence on the hypothesis is mixed. ...
... Lastly, empirical evidence on the hypothesis is mixed. While there is evidence from behavioral experiments in support of the LSH (e.g., Lergetporer et al., 2014), opposite results have also been obtained (e.g., Thoma & Tytus, 2018). ...
Conference Paper
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There has been much discussion around the Linguistic-Savings Hypothesis (LSH), which postulates that language can affect intertemporal choices of its speakers; the validity of this claim has remained controversial. To test the LSH independent from the possible influencing factors, such as cultural differences, we focused on the Japanese language, which features asymmetric tense marking, in that past tense is grammatically marked but future tense is not. Adopting a within-participant design, we compared the discounting behavior between past and future gains in native Japanese participants. Our results revealed that Japanese speakers tended to discount the values placed on rewards in an asymmetry way: to discount the value of past gains more heavily than that of future gains. We believed our results corroborated the LSH and linguistic relativity.
... Some researchers addressed the criticism by using experimental paradigms (J. I. Chen et al., 2019;Sutter et al., 2018;Thoma & Tytus, 2018). These studies mainly explored whether the obligatory grammatical marking of the future (e.g., with a future tense) impacted intertemporal choice preferences (i.e., decision patterns, where people decide whether they prefer delayed and larger rewards or sooner and smaller rewards). ...
Article
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The way the future is grammaticalized in language may influence the way we think about future events. However, recent experimental investigations have led to suspicions that this relationship may not be driven by the future tense alone. Rather than simply considering whether a language uses the future tense to mark the future, it has been suggested that epistemic modality, which marks probability or likelihood, may contribute to this relationship. The notion of probability is applicable to research in health communication, as its goal is to effectively communicate health-relevant (future) outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess the role of grammaticalization of the future and epistemic modality in the context of effective health messages for skin cancer. Concretely, we conducted two experiments where we presented a total of 299 participants from the general population with narratives about fictional characters and their skin cancer risk related to their new job situation. These narratives varied in terms of verb tense and epistemic modality. Participants had to rate the perceived likelihood that the people described in the narratives would develop skin cancer. In Experiment 1 we assessed participants' cognitive evaluation and in Experiment 2 we assessed participants' affective evaluation of the likelihood of developing skin cancer. We found a main effect for epistemic modality when information was processed cognitively (Experiment 1) and a main effect for verb tense when information was processed affec-tively (Experiment 2). Our results indicate that the way we present health information in narratives may affect people's perception of the likelihood of developing skin cancer. Further, we found evidence that affective evaluation may be connected to superficial information processing.
... For example, nuanced temporal distinctions can be introduced through adverbs and adverbial phrases ("I worked until late yesterday") and number can be conveyed through numerals ("They came across with three lions in their safari"). However, mounting evidence suggests the presence or absence of mandatory grammatical distinctions have observable cognitive and behavioral implications because they compel our attention (Almoammer et al. 2013;Thoma and Tytus 2018). ...
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After introducing the new field of cultural evolution, we review a growing body of empirical evidence suggesting that culture shapes what people attend to, perceive and remember as well as how they think, feel and reason. Focusing on perception, spatial navigation, mentalizing, thinking styles, reasoning (epistemic norms) and language, we discuss not only important variation in these domains, but emphasize that most researchers (including philosophers) and research participants are psychologically peculiar within a global and historical context. This rising tide of evidence recommends caution in relying on one’s intuitions or even in generalizing from reliable psychological findings to the species, Homo sapiens. Our evolutionary approach suggests that humans have evolved a suite of reliably developing cognitive abilities that adapt our minds, information-processing abilities and emotions ontogenetically to the diverse culturally-constructed worlds we confront.
... For example, nuanced temporal distinctions can be introduced through adverbs and adverbial phrases ("I worked until late yesterday") and number can be conveyed through numerals ("They came across with three lions in their safari"). However, mounting evidence suggests the presence or absence of mandatory grammatical distinctions have observable cognitive and behavioral implications because they compel our attention (Almoammer et al., 2013;Thoma & Tytus, 2018). ...
Article
Full-text available
After introducing the new field of cultural evolution, we review a growing body of empirical evidence suggesting that culture shapes what people attend to, perceive and remember as well as how they think, feel and reason. Focusing on perception, spatial navigation, mentalizing, thinking styles, reasoning (epistemic norms) and language, we discuss not only important variation in these domains, but emphasize that most researchers (including philosophers) and research participants are psychologically peculiar within a global and historical context. This rising tide of evidence recommends caution in relying on one's intuitions or even in generalizing from reliable psychological findings to the species, Homo sapiens. Our evolutionary approach suggests that humans have evolved a suite of reliably developing cognitive abilities that adapt our minds, information-processing abilities and emotions ontogenetically to the diverse culturally-constructed worlds we confront.
... 3 Although it is still a correlational study, Thoma and Tytus (2018) find opposing evidence. They investigate the relationship between the degree to which a language utilizes future-time reference (from the weakest to the strongest: Chinese, German, Danish, Spanish, and English) and its native speakers' intertemporal decision-making. ...
Article
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Since Chen (2013), a fast-growing body of literature has documented abundant supporting evidence for the linguistic-savings hypothesis. Despite this influx of research, direct causal evidence is limited. In this study, we take advantage of a unique linguistic feature of the Chinese language: speakers can freely choose whether or not to use the future tense when referring to a future event. This flexibility allows us to unobtrusively manipulate the use of “will” in the description of the rewards in a standard time preference task to cleanly examine its effect on intertemporal decisions. However, our results do not lend further empirical support for the linguistic-savings hypothesis.
... Chen (2013) analyzed large databases and found that the native speakers of futureless languages like German save more, smoke less, practice safer sex, and are less obese than the native speakers of languages that mark the future. Importantly, Cheng showed that these effects hold even for individuals that live in the same country and are matched in several potentially relevant dimensions (see also Sutter et al., 2015;Thoma and Tytus, 2018). These results suggest that the language we speak influences future wellbeing with futureless languages fostering more future-oriented behavior. ...
Chapter
As a result of globalization, millions of people operate in a language that they comprehend well but is not their native tongue. This paper focuses on how the nativeness of the language of a communication influences judgments and decisions. We review studies that compare decision making while people use a native language to when they use a nonnative language they understand well. The evidence shows that a nonnative language decreases the impact that emotions and socio-moral norms have on users, thereby reducing well-known judgmental biases and norm-related behavior. This effect of nonnative or foreign language brings to light the important role that the native language plays routinely in judgment and decision making. It suggests that the native language is not a simple carrier of meaning. Instead, it reveals that our native language serves as a carrier of emotions and socio-moral norms which in turn govern judgments and choices.
... The space of results should tell us more than simply that the first paper was flawed: it suggests that collapsing information within languages loses some important aspects of the data, and that all three of the historical processes are at play in human cultural evolution (see also Moran et al., 2012). Furthermore, the ultimate suggestion of the paper was that large-scale, cross-cultural statistics was not the best approach for addressing this question due to the complexities of the confounding factors, and instead future research should concentrate on localized experiments, which are quite feasible in this case (Thoma and Tytus, 2017). ...
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A previous study by Chen demonstrates a correlation between languages that grammatically mark future events and their speakers' propensity to save, even after controlling for numerous economic and demographic factors. The implication is that languages which grammatically distinguish the present and the future may bias their speakers to distinguish them psychologically, leading to less future-oriented decision making. However, Chen's original analysis assumed languages are independent. This neglects the fact that languages are related, causing correlations to appear stronger than is warranted (Galton's problem). In this paper, we test the robustness of Chen's correlations to corrections for the geographic and historical relatedness of languages. While the question seems simple, the answer is complex. In general, the statistical correlation between the two variables is weaker when controlling for relatedness. When applying the strictest tests for relatedness, and when data is not aggregated across individuals, the correlation is not significant. However, the correlation did remain reasonably robust under a number of tests. We argue that any claims of synchronic patterns between cultural variables should be tested for spurious correlations, with the kinds of approaches used in this paper. However, experiments or case-studies would be more fruitful avenues for future research on this specific topic, rather than further large-scale cross-cultural correlational studies.
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We review a number of recent studies that have identified either correlations between different linguistic features (e.g., implicational universals) or correlations between linguistic features and nonlinguistic properties of speakers or their environment (e.g., effects of geography on vocabulary). We compare large-scale quantitative studies with more traditional theoretical and historical linguistic research and identify divergent assumptions and methods that have led linguists to be skeptical of correlational work. We also attempt to demystify statistical techniques and point out the importance of informed critiques of the validity of statistical approaches. Finally, we describe various methods used in recent correlational studies to deal with the fact that, because of contact and historical relatedness, individual languages in a sample rarely represent independent data points, and we show how these methods may allow us to explore linguistic prehistory to a greater time depth than is possible with orthodox comparative reconstruction.
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The recent proliferation of digital databases of cultural and linguistic data, together with new statistical techniques becoming available has lead to a rise in so-called nomothetic studies [1]-[8]. These seek relationships between demographic variables and cultural traits from large, cross-cultural datasets. The insights from these studies are important for understanding how cultural traits evolve. While these studies are fascinating and are good at generating testable hypotheses, they may underestimate the probability of finding spurious correlations between cultural traits. Here we show that this kind of approach can find links between such unlikely cultural traits as traffic accidents, levels of extra-martial sex, political collectivism and linguistic diversity. This suggests that spurious correlations, due to historical descent, geographic diffusion or increased noise-to-signal ratios in large datasets, are much more likely than some studies admit. We suggest some criteria for the evaluation of nomothetic studies and some practical solutions to the problems. Since some of these studies are receiving media attention without a widespread understanding of the complexities of the issue, there is a risk that poorly controlled studies could affect policy. We hope to contribute towards a general skepticism for correlational studies by demonstrating the ease of finding apparently rigorous correlations between cultural traits. Despite this, we see well-controlled nomothetic studies as useful tools for the development of theories.
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Self-reports of behaviors and attitudes are strongly influenced by features of the research instrument, including question wording, format, and context. Recent research has addressed the underlying cognitive and communicative processes, which are systematic and increasingly well- understood. I review what has been learned, focusing on issues of question comprehension, behavioral frequency reports, and the emergence of context effects in attitude measurement. The accumulating knowledge about the processes underlying self-reports promises to improve questionnaire design and data quality.
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In Study 1, over 200 college students estimated how much their own chance of experiencing 42 events differed from the chances of their classmates. Overall, Ss rated their own chances to be significantly above average for positive events and below average for negative events. Cognitive and motivational considerations led to predictions that degree of desirability, perceived probability, personal experience, perceived controllability, and stereotype salience would influence the amount of optimistic bias evoked by different events. All predictions were supported, although the pattern of effects differed for positive and negative events. Study 2 with 120 female undergraduates from Study 1 tested the idea that people are unrealistically optimistic because they focus on factors that improve their own chances of achieving desirable outcomes and fail to realize that others may have just as many factors in their favor. Ss listed the factors that they thought influenced their own chances of experiencing 8 future events. When such lists were read by a 2nd group of Ss, the amount of unrealistic optimism shown by this 2nd group for the same 8 events decreased significantly, although it was not eliminated. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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People prefer to receive good outcomes immediately rather than wait, and they must be compensated for waiting. But what influences their decision about how much compensation is required for a given wait? To give a partial answer to this question, we develop the DRIFT model, a heuristic description of how framing influences intertemporal choice. We describe 4 experiments showing the implications of this model. In the experiments, we vary how the difference between a smaller sooner outcome and a larger later outcome is framed-either as total interest earned, as an interest rate, or as total amount earned (the conventional frame in studies of intertemporal choice)-and whether the larger later outcome is described as resulting from the investment of the smaller sooner one. These alternate frames have several effects. First, the investment language increases patience. Second, the explicit provision of the (otherwise implicit) experimental interest rate sharply reduces the magnitude effect. Correspondingly, we find that interest frames increase patience when the rewards are small, but they decrease patience when they are large. Third, the interest-rate frame induces somewhat greater discounting for longer time periods and, thus, reverses the common finding of "hyperbolic" discounting. Thus, many of the "stylized facts" implied by studies involving choices between a smaller sooner and a larger later amount are eliminated or reverse under alternate outcome frames. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
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Publisher Summary This chapter addresses the universals in the content and structure of values, concentrating on the theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries, and its four basic issues: substantive contents of human values; identification of comprehensive set of values; extent to which the meaning of particular values was equivalent for different groups of people; and how the relations among different values was structured. Substantial progress has been made toward resolving each of these issues. Ten motivationally distinct value types that were likely to be recognized within and across cultures and used to form value priorities were identified. Set of value types that was relatively comprehensive, encompassing virtually all the types of values to which individuals attribute at least moderate importance as criteria of evaluation was demonstrated. The evidence from 20 countries was assembled, showing that the meaning of the value types and most of the single values that constitute them was reasonably equivalent across most groups. Two basic dimensions that organize value systems into an integrated motivational structure with consistent value conflicts and compatibilities were discovered. By identifying universal aspects of value content and structure, the chapter has laid the foundations for investigating culture-specific aspects in the future.
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Consumers often make decisions about outcomes and events that occur over time. This research examines consumers’ sensitivity to the prospective duration relevant to their decisions and the implications of such sensitivity for intertemporal trade-offs, especially the degree of present bias (i.e., hyperbolic discounting). The authors show that participants’ subjective perceptions of prospective duration are not sufficiently sensitive to changes in objective duration and are nonlinearand concave in objective time, consistent with psychophysical principles. More important, this lack of sensitivity can explain hyperbolic discounting. The results replicate standard hyperbolic discounting effects with respect to objective time but show a relatively constant rate ofdiscounting with respect to subjective time perceptions. The results are replicated between subjects (Experiment 1) and within subjects (Experiments 2), with multiple time horizons and multiple descriptors, and with different measurement orders. Furthermore, the authors showthat when duration is primed, subjective time perception is altered (Experiment 4) and hyperbolic discounting is reduced (Experiment 3).
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This work examines consumers' preferences for consumption timing. Specifically, we examine how temporal framing (deferring vs. expediting) of a decision moderates the sensitivity of consumers' pattern of discounting to changes in time horizon. In three experiments, we show greater decline in consumers' discount rates with time horizon (i.e., greater present bias) when deferring than when expediting consumption. The results are robust to using monetary and non-monetary outcomes, as well as to different time horizons (months, days). We further demonstrate that this difference in sensitivity is moderated by the different levels of mental representations (concreteness) triggered by the two decision frames.
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We present a psychometric scale that assesses risk taking in five content domains: financial decisions (separately for investing versus gambling), health/safety, recreational, ethical, and social decisions. Respondents rate the likelihood that they would engage in domain-specific risky activities (Part I). An optional Part II assesses respondents’ perceptions of the magnitude of the risks and expected benefits of the activities judged in Part I. The scale’s construct validity and consistency is evaluated for a sample of American undergraduate students. As expected, respondents’ degree of risk taking was highly domain-specific, i.e. not consistently risk-averse or consistently risk-seeking across all content domains. Women appeared to be more risk-averse in all domains except social risk. A regression of risk taking (likelihood of engaging in the risky activity) on expected benefits and perceived risks suggests that gender and content domain differences in apparent risk taking are associated with differences in the perception of the activities’ benefits and risk, rather than with differences in attitude towards perceived risk.
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This paper reports the elicited time preference of human subjects in a laboratory setting. The model allows for non-linear utility functions, non-separability between delay and reward, and time inconsistency including future bias in addition to present bias. In particular, the experiment (1) runs a non-parametric test of time consistency and (2) estimates the form of time discount function independently of instantaneous utility functions, and then (3) the result suggests that many subjects exhibiting future bias, indicating an inverse S-curve time discount function.
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Moral ideals are strongly ingrained within society and individuals alike, but actual moral choices are profoundly influenced by tangible rewards and consequences. Across two studies we show that real moral decisions can dramatically contradict moral choices made in hypothetical scenarios (Study 1). However, by systematically enhancing the contextual information available to subjects when addressing a hypothetical moral problem-thereby reducing the opportunity for mental simulation-we were able to incrementally bring subjects' responses in line with their moral behaviour in real situations (Study 2). These results imply that previous work relying mainly on decontextualized hypothetical scenarios may not accurately reflect moral decisions in everyday life. The findings also shed light on contextual factors that can alter how moral decisions are made, such as the salience of a personal gain.
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This article suggests evidence for and reasons why prior acquisition may either facilitate or inhibit acquisition of a new construction. It investigates acquisition of the German passive and future constructions which contain a lexical verb with either the auxiliary sein "to be" or werden "to become", and are related through these to potential supporting constructions. We predicted that a supported construction should be acquired earlier, faster, and unusually rapidly. An inhibited construction should show an extended depressed usage. We analyzed a dense corpus of a German boy between 2;0 and 5;0. He acquired the sein- before the werden-passive. The former was supported by his prior acquisition of the sein copula, whereas the werden-passive itself supported one werden copula construction. He acquired the werden-future extremely slowly due to the hindrance of a semantically identical construction. These results fit with an emergentist approach in which apparently "sudden" acquisition is still due to gradual learning mechanisms.
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Hypothetical reports of intended behavior are commonly used to draw conclusions about real choices. A fundamental question in decision neuroscience is whether the same type of valuation and choice computations are performed in hypothetical and real decisions. We investigated this question using functional magnetic resonance imaging while human subjects made real and hypothetical choices about purchases of consumer goods. We found that activity in common areas of the orbitofrontal cortex and the ventral striatum correlated with behavioral measures of the stimulus value of the goods in both types of decision. Furthermore, we found that activity in these regions was stronger in response to the stimulus value signals in the real choice condition. The findings suggest that the difference between real and hypothetical choice is primarily attributable to variations in the value computations of the medial orbitofrontal cortex and the ventral striatum, and not attributable to the use of different valuation systems, or to the computation of stronger stimulus value signals in the hypothetical condition.
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Internet-mediated research has offered substantial advantages over traditional laboratory-based research in terms of efficiently and affordably allowing for the recruitment of large samples of participants for psychology studies. Core technical, ethical, and methodological issues have been addressed in recent years, but the important issue of participant dropout has received surprisingly little attention. Specifically, web-based psychology studies often involve undergraduates completing lengthy and time-consuming batteries of online personality questionnaires, but no known published studies to date have closely examined the natural course of participant dropout during attempted completion of these studies. The present investigation examined participant dropout among 1,963 undergraduates completing one of six web-based survey studies relatively representative of those conducted in university settings. Results indicated that 10% of participants could be expected to drop out of these studies nearly instantaneously, with an additional 2% dropping out per 100 survey items included in the study. For individual project investigators, these findings hold ramifications for study design considerations, such as conducting a priori power analyses. The present results also have broader ethical implications for understanding and improving voluntary participation in research involving human subjects. Nonetheless, the generalizability of these conclusions may be limited to studies involving similar design or survey content.
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The authors assess sex differences in the importance of 10 basic values as guiding principles. Findings from 127 samples in 70 countries (N = 77,528) reveal that men attribute consistently more importance than women do to power, stimulation, hedonism, achievement, and self-direction values; the reverse is true for benevolence and universalism values and less consistently for security values. The sexes do not differ on tradition and conformity values. Sex differences are small (median d = .15; maximum d = .32 [power]) and typically explain less variance than age and much less than culture. Culture moderates all sex differences and sample type and measurement instrument have minor influences. The authors discuss compatibility of findings with evolutionary psychology and sex role theory and propose an agenda for future research.
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Corruption in the public sector erodes tax compliance and leads to higher tax evasion. Moreover, corrupt public officials abuse their public power to extort bribes from the private agents. In both types of interaction with the public sector, the private agents are bound to face uncertainty with respect to their disposable incomes. To analyse effects of this uncertainty, a stochastic dynamic growth model with the public sector is examined. It is shown that deterministic excessive red tape and corruption deteriorate the growth potential through income redistribution and public sector inefficiencies. Most importantly, it is demonstrated that the increase in corruption via higher uncertainty exerts adverse effects on capital accumulation, thus leading to lower growth rates.
Book
The future of English linguistics as envisaged by the editors of Topics in English Linguistics lies in empirical studies which integrate work in English linguistics into general and theoretical linguistics on the one hand, and comparative linguistics on the other. The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics. © 1990 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-1000 Berlin 30. All rights reserved.
Book
The series is a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. General problems are studied from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Conclusions are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. Special emphasis is given to little-known languages, whose analysis may shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics. © 2000 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH and Co. KG. All Rights Reserved.
Book
How do people decide whether to sacrifice now for a future reward or to enjoy themselves in the present? Do the future gains of putting money in a pension fund outweigh going to Hawaii for New Year's Eve? Why does a person's self-discipline one day often give way to impulsive behavior the next? Time and Decision takes up these questions with a comprehensive collection of new research on intertemporal choice, examining how people face the problem of deciding over time. Economists approach intertemporal choice by means of a model in which people discount the value of future events at a constant rate. A vacation two years from now is worth less to most people than a vacation next week. Psychologists, on the other hand, have focused on the cognitive and emotional underpinnings of intertemporal choice. Time and Decision draws from both disciplinary approaches to provide a comprehensive picture of the various layers of choice involved. Shane Frederick, George Loewenstein, and Ted O'Donoghue introduce the volume with an overview of the research on time discounting and focus on how people actually discount the future compared to the standard economic model. Alex Kacelnik discusses the crucial role that the ability to delay gratification must have played in evolution. Walter Mischel and colleagues review classic research showing that four year olds who are able to delay gratification subsequently grow up to perform better in college than their counterparts who chose instant gratification. The book also delves into the neurobiology of patience, examining the brain structures involved in the ability to withstand an impulse. Turning to the issue of self-control, Klaus Wertenbroch examines the relationship between consumption and available resources, showing, for example, how a high credit limit can lead people to overspend. Ted O'Donoghue and Matthew Rabin show how people's awareness of their self-control problems affects their decision-making. The final section of the book examines intertemporal choice with regard to health, drug addiction, dieting, marketing, savings, and public policy. All of us make important decisions every day-many of which profoundly affect the quality of our lives. Time and Decision provides a fascinating look at the complex factors involved in how and why we make our choices, so many of them short-sighted, and helps us understand more precisely this crucial human frailty.
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In framing studies, logically equivalent choice situations are differently described and the resulting preferences are studied. A meta-analysis of framing effects is presented for risky choice problems which are framed either as gains or as losses. This evaluates the finding that highlighting the positive aspects of formally identical problems does lead to risk aversion and that highlighting their equivalent negative aspects does lead to risk seeking. Based on a data pool of 136 empirical papers that reported framing experiments with nearly 30,000 participants, we calculated 230 effect sizes. Results show that the overall framing effect between conditions is of small to moderate size and that profound differences exist between research designs. Potentially relevant characteristics were coded for each study. The most important characteristics were whether framing is manipulated by changing reference points or by manipulating outcome salience, and response mode (choice vs. rating/judgment). Further important characteristics were whether options differ qualitatively or quantitatively in risk, whether there is one or multiple risky events, whether framing is manipulated by gain/loss or by task-responsive wording, whether dependent variables are measured between- or within- subjects, and problem domains. Sample (students vs. target populations) and unit of analysis (individual vs. group) was not influential. It is concluded that framing is a reliable phenomenon, but that outcome salience manipulations, which constitute a considerable amount of work, have to be distinguished from reference point manipulations and that procedural features of experimental settings have a considerable effect on effect sizes in framing experiments.
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Purpose – The paper aims to examine worker job attribute preferences, by which is meant the extent to which individuals desire a variety of specific qualities and outcomes from their paid work. It seeks to examine how these preferences are ranked and to identify their principal correlates. Design/methodology/approach – The study makes use of a quantitative methodology, notably the application of an ordered probit model to analyse a data set which has its origins in the 2006 Skills Survey. Findings – “Work you like doing”; a “secure job”; “friendly people to work with”; and “opportunities to use your abilities” are the four highest ranked job attribute preferences. Worker job attribute preferences vary with the characteristics of the worker, including gender, domestic circumstances, highest qualification held and occupation. Research limitations/implications – The study reports “correlations” and does not imply “causation”. The findings are for the year 2006. On the assumption that job attribute preferences are constrained by the employment opportunities available, the findings may change with the economic cycle, in a manner comparable to recent research findings about some facets of job satisfaction. Originality/value – This is the first detailed statistical examination of this subset of questions in the survey in question.
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Cultural distance is a widely used construct in international business, where it has been applied to foreign investment expansion, entry mode choice, and the performance of foreign invested affiliates, among others. The present paper presents a critical review of the cultural distance construct, outlining its hidden assumptions and challenging its theoretical and methodological properties. A comprehensive framework for the treatment of the construct is developed and concrete steps aimed at enhancing rigor are delineated.
Article
Self-reports of behaviors and attitudes are strongly influenced by features of the research instrument, including question wording, format, and context. Recent research has addressed the underlying cognitive and communicative processes, which are systematic and increasingly well-understood. The author reviews what has been learned, focusing on issues of question comprehension, behavioral frequency reports, and the emergence of context effect in attitude measurement. The accumulating knowledge about the processes underlying self-reports promises to improve the questionnaire design and data quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
The propensity for religious belief and behavior is a universal feature of human societies, but religious practice often imposes substantial costs upon its practitioners. This suggests that during human cultural evolution, the costs associated with religiosity might have been traded off for psychological or social benefits that redounded to fitness on average. One possible benefit of religious belief and behavior, which virtually every world religion extols, is delay of gratification—that is, the ability to forego small rewards available immediately in the interest of obtaining larger rewards that are available only after a time delay. In this study we found that religious commitment was associated with a tendency to forgo immediate rewards in order to gain larger, future rewards. We also found that this relationship was partially mediated by future time orientation, which is a subjective sense that the future is very close in time and is approaching rapidly. Although the effect sizes of these associations were relatively small in magnitude, they obtained even when controlling for sex and the Big Five personality traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism).
Article
Hypothetical bias arises in stated preference valuation studies when respondents report a willingness to pay (WTP) that exceeds what they actually pay using their own money in laboratory or field experiments. Although this bias is not found in all stated preference surveys, hypothetical WTP typically exceeds the actual value by a factor of two to three. Unfortunately, there is no widely accepted general theory of respondent behaviour that explains hypothetical bias. Therefore, two meta-analyses are reviewed to test current hypotheses regarding the causes of this overstatement of WTP and the associated recommendations to mitigate the bias. Suggestions for future research are made including the development of a general theory.
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How reliable are all those stories about the number of Eskimo words for snow? How can lamps, flags, and parrots be libelous? How might Star Trek's Commander Spock react to Noam Chomsky's theories of language? These and many other odd questions are typical topics in this collection of essays that present an occasionally zany, often wry, but always fascinating look at language and the people who study it. Geoffrey K. Pullum's writings began as columns in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory in 1983. For six years, in almost every issue, under the banner "TOPIC. . .COMMENT," he published a captivating mélange of commentary, criticism, satire, whimsy, and fiction. Those columns are reproduced here—almost exactly as his friends and colleagues originally warned him not to publish them—along with new material including a foreword by James D. McCawley, a prologue, and a new introduction to each of these clever pieces. Whether making a sneak attack on some sacred cow, delivering a tongue-in-cheek protest against current standards, or supplying a caustic review of some recent development, Pullum remains in touch with serious concerns about language and society. At the same time, he reminds the reader not to take linguistics too seriously all of the time. Pullum will take you on an excursion into the wild and untamed fringes of linguistics. Among the unusual encounters in store are a conversation between Star Trek's Commander Spock and three real earth linguists, the strange tale of the author's imprisonment for embezzling funds from the Campaign for Typographical Freedom, a harrowing account of a day in the research life of four unhappy grammarians, and the true story of how a monograph on syntax was suppressed because the examples were judged to be libelous. You will also find a volley of humorous broadsides aimed at dishonest attributional practices, meddlesome copy editors, mathematical incompetence, and "cracker-barrel philosophy of science." These learned and witty pieces will delight anyone who is fascinated by the quirks of language and linguists.
Article
This paper outlines a framework of the temporal interpretation in Chinese with a special focus on complement and relative clauses. It argues that not only does Chinese have no morphological tenses but there is no need to resort to covert semantic features under a tense node in order to interpret time in Chinese. Instead, it utilises various factors such as the information provided by default aspect, the tense-aspect particles, and pragmatic reasoning to determine the temporal interpretation of sentences. It is shown that aspectual markers in Chinese play the same role that tense plays in a tense language. This result implies that the Chinese phrase structure has AspP above VP but no TP is above AspP.
Article
Age differences in future orientation are examined in a sample of 935 individuals between 10 and 30 years using a delay discounting task as well as a new self-report measure. Younger adolescents consistently demonstrate a weaker orientation to the future than do individuals aged 16 and older, as reflected in their greater willingness to accept a smaller reward delivered sooner than a larger one that is delayed, and in their characterizations of themselves as less concerned about the future and less likely to anticipate the consequences of their decisions. Planning ahead, in contrast, continues to develop into young adulthood. Future studies should distinguish between future orientation and impulse control, which may have different neural underpinnings and follow different developmental timetables.
Article
The psychological principles that govern the perception of decision problems and the evaluation of probabilities and outcomes produce predictable shifts of preference when the same problem is framed in different ways. Reversals of preference are demonstrated in choices regarding monetary outcomes, both hypothetical and real, and in questions pertaining to the loss of human lives. The effects of frames on preferences are compared to the effects of perspectives on perceptual appearance. The dependence of preferences on the formulation of decision problems is a significant concern for the theory of rational choice.
Article
This paper discusses the discounted utility (DU) model: its historical development, underlying assumptions, and "anomalies"--the empirical regularities that are inconsistent with its theoretical predictions. We then summarize the alternate theoretical formulations that have been advanced to address these anomalies. We also review three decades of empirical research on intertemporal choice, and discuss reasons for the spectacular variation in implicit discount rates across studies. Throughout the paper, we stress the importance of distinguishing time preference, per se, from many other considerations that also influence intertemporal choices.
Article
This paper presents a model of intertemporal choice that incorporates "savoring" and "dread"-i.e., utility from anticipat ion of delayed consumption. The model explains why an individual with positive time preference may delay desirable outcomes or get unpleas ant outcomes over with quickly, contrary to the prediction of convent ional formulations of intertemporal choice. Implications of savoring and dread for savings behavior, empirical estimation of discount rate s, and public policy efforts to combat myopic behavior are explored. The model provides an explanation for common violations of the indepe ndence axiom as applied to intertemporal choice. Copyright 1987 by Royal Economic Society.
Article
In a series of three experiments, subjects made risky decisions under conditions of hypothetical or real consequences. Task variations across experiments included: (1) type of risk (monetary gambles or investments of time and effort), (2) within-subject and between-subjects manipulations of consequence condition, and (3) single or multiple decisions. The hypothesis of no difference between choices in real and hypothetical consequence conditions was retained in each experiment. Supplemental analyses ruled out various “artifactual” interpretations of the null results. Discussion focused on conditions in which researchers can and cannot infer decision makers’ actual risk preferences from their responses in laboratory tasks.
Stuck in the futureless zone
  • Ö Dahl
Advances in experimental social psychology
  • S. H. Schwartz
The effect of language on economic behavior: Evidence from savings rates, health behaviors, and retirement assets
  • Chen
Chen, M. K. (2013). The effect of language on economic behavior: Evidence from savings rates, health behaviors, and retirement assets. The American Economic Review, 103(2), 690-731. https://doi.org/10. 1257/aer.103.2.690.