You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

evand comments on Framing a problem in a foreign language seems to reduce decision biases - Less Wrong Discussion

-4 Post author: MBlume 25 June 2012 05:25PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (8)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: evand 26 June 2012 12:41:22AM 1 point [-]

I believe linguistic relativity and Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis are the usual names for this idea. I also believe it's been mostly discredited in linguistic circles, but it's been a while since I talked about it with a linguist, so you should do your own research.

Comment author: OrphanWilde 26 June 2012 12:58:09PM 0 points [-]

Thank you! I tend to remember ideas better than their names. (And linguistic relativity is a horrible name for that idea, IMHO.)

A quick glance around the internet suggests that Sapir and Whorf's versions of the theory - that language affects thought, but doesn't strictly determine it - enjoys moderate empirical support and continuing professional support. The stronger variants, broadly linguistic determinism, seem to be largely discredited.