Language is a major factor in what makes humans unique. Our ability to communicate ideas, desires, and thoughts is often used with little regard, meaning we rarely acknowledge just how fascinating and important this ability is. Naturally, we use language as a tool to explain how we see the world. But could language actually be what determines how we see the world around us?
Understanding that language has a substantial impact on human perspective not only helps us better understand our own views, but also...the perspectives of other cultures all over the world.
Well, when it comes to the perception of color, there is an abundance of evidence indicating that language does affect what we see. Although we are all able to see the same range of colors, the language we use to label colors influences our perception of color. We divide color into different categories if we use language to talk about color differently. One study[1] demonstrating this phenomenon investigated color perception using an "odd-one-out’" task.
Figure 1. 'Odd-one-out' task. Pick out the odd square from the circle on the left. Easy? Now try the one on the right. Probably not so easy.
It was demonstrated that people from a Namibian tribe could (at a rate above chance) pick out the odd color in a circle of green options (Figure 1, right image), yet never pick out the blue (Figure 1, left image), whereas English speakers would easily select the blue while randomly selecting the options from the exclusively green option.
The Namibian language has one word for blue and green, so Namibians found it nearly impossible to see the blue square. Furthermore, the dialect of this Namibian tribe had many labels for different shades of green (compared to English), making it easier for them to distinguish different shades of green where English speakers see just one shade of green.
What this study shows is that language can literally be used as a means to widen our perspectives of the world. Additional research has demonstrated that our language experience (i.e., the words that exist for us) affects how we perceive time and space[2], changes our attitudes, and greatly affects our cultures, among other amazing phenomena.
While language is a vastly useful tool for communication, it also has a big influence in our everyday experiences. Understanding that language has a substantial impact on human perspective not only helps us better understand our own views, but also brings us one step closer to understanding, quite literally, the perspectives of other cultures all over the world.
Looks like the benefits of learning a language never cease!
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with little regard—without paying attention.
an abundance of—a lot of.
to indicate [verb] /IN-di-keyt/—to be a sign of.
whereas [conjunction] /wair-AZ/—on the other hand.
to distinguish [verb] /dih-STING-gwish/—tell the difference between.
means [noun] /meenz/—way to accomplish something.
vastly [adverb] /vast-lee/—very; extremely.
substantial [adjective] /suhb-STAN-shuhl/—large; huge.
bring us one step closer to—get us a little bit closer to.
to cease [verb] /sees/—end; stop.
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1Roberson, D., Davidoff, J., Davies, I. R., & Shapiro, L. R. (2005). Color categories: Evidence for the cultural relativity hypothesis. Cognitive psychology, 50(4), 378-411.
2Boroditsky, L., & Gaby, A. (2010). Remembrances of times East: absolute spatial representations of time in an Australian aboriginal community. Psychological Science, 21(11), 1635-1639.
Comments
Fascinating!
Great blog Chris. I studied psychology (a long time ago!) and was fascinated by the concept that language governs thought. It might have been Chomsky who came up with that, but as I say, half a lifetime ago...
Thanks, Kevin! Really
Thanks, Kevin! Really appreciate the compliment. I do think I read something about Chomsky somewhere in all the research, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was somehow involved!