Welke taal je spreekt zou een invloed hebben op verschillende onverwachte aspecten in je leven blijkt uit een paar onderzoeken:

• spaargedrag en gezondheid: in deze paper van Keith Chen wordt de invloed op sparen onderzocht, en indirect op hoe gezond men leeft qua gewicht, roken,… Bij het lezen van het onderzoek wel een bedenking, hoeveel is hiervan ook gewoon niet cultureel bepaald? Abstract van het onderzoek:
  Languages differ widely in the ways they partition time. In this paper I test the hypothesis that languages which grammatically distinguish between present and future events (what linguists call strongFTR languages) lead their speakers to take fewer future-oriented actions. First, I show how this prediction arises naturally when well-documented effects of language on cognition are merged with models of decision making over time. Then, I show that consistent with this hypothesis, speakers of strong-FTR languages save less, hold less retirement wealth, smoke more, are more likely to be obese, and suffer worse longrun health. This is true in every major region of the world and holds even when comparing only demographically similar individuals born and living in the same country. While not conclusive, the evidence does not seem to support the most obvious forms of common causation. Implications of these findings for theories of intertemporal choice are discussed. (gevonden via @bvlg hier)
• Gender bias: hoe verschillen kinderen in het kijken naar geslachten van objecten als er in hun taal vrouwelijke en mannelijke woorden bestaan (zoals in het Frans) met kinderen waarbij dit onderscheid niet bestaat (zoals in het Engels)? Dit onderzochten Elena Nicoladis en Cassandra Foursha-Stevenson. Abstract van het onderzoek:
  The present studies test whether French grammatical gender affects bilingual children’s classification of objects as boys or girls in English, in children aged 3 to 5 years (Study 1) and aged 8 to 10 years (Study 2), compared to monolingual children to control for possible cultural biases. In both studies, children tended to classify more objects as boys than as girls. In Study 1, the bilingual children showed a reduced boy bias relative to monolinguals. Only the older children showed a by-object effect of French gender. The bilinguals’ and monolinguals’ classifications were highly correlated. In Study 3, English-speaking adults classified object names as boys or girls. The adults’ classifications were highly correlated with the children’s. The authors argue that the classification of objects by gender is affected by cultural biases as well as knowledge of French. The effect of French knowledge is modified by age. (ook meer info hier)