Link to Knowledge Question
Power of speech, hence power of language. Huge impact on (political) history. Nations’ as well as individuals’ behavior influenced, thus our KQ.
Real Life Situation
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:
- 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"
How does language influence human behaviour in terms of body, verbal and written language?
Accent: only pronunciation differs
e.g. an American speaking German
Collective Identity
Emotional expression exercise test: developed by psychologists Pennebaker and Beall
The Link:
From Written Language to Personal Identity
The Asthma Experience
- Asthma is a chronic illness
- Attacks are unpredictable and vary in intensity
- Some of the most severe attacks are near-death experiences
- subjects tested had mild to severe asthma
- they were encouraged to write about a traumatic experience
Common SYMPTOMS:
- Fear/Anxiety
- Hypervigilance
- Embarassment
- Writing makes us healthier
- Increased health reduces any active symptoms
- This can take away our fear of inferiority and make us more outgoing
- ... attachment to a certain group
- ... focuses on the group as a whole
Why EMOJI?
But...
There are limitations to emoji -
- only 7% of our face-to-face communication occurs through purely linguistic elements
Emoticons as a universal language
The Link: From Written Language to Collective Identity
- Emoticons act as prosodic features in cyberspace communication
- Young Japanese in particular use emojis as an alternative for the written word
- Emoticons facilitate international communication as they overcome the barrier of language difference.
- Emoji encourages us to interact with people not only in our comfort zones, but everyone.
- communicating by pictures
- Emoticons are already known to be the first truly universal language
Cultural Idenitity
Personal Identity
- ... the identity of feeling or belonging to
- ... nationality, ethnicity, gender, locality, social class & ...
- Chameleon effect
- Tanya Chartrand & John Bargh
- Argumentum ad Populum
- Keith Chen
- Futured vs. Futureless Language
- Saving & Health
... the concept you develop about yourself that evolves over the course of your life
English
- Present tense: It is snowing today.
- Future tense: It will/is going to snow tomorrow.
Futureless-language speakers:
- 30% more likely to save
- Retire with 25% more in savings
- 20-24% less likely to smoke
- 13-17% less likely to be obese
- 21% more likely to use condoms
- Language in Literature (Pygmalion)
German
- Present tense: Heute schneit es.
- Future tense: Morgen schneit es.
Pygmalion
- History's Impact on Behaviour
- Eliza's social class shift impacts her cultural identity
- Literary parallels encourage us to identify the same phenomenon in our lives - examples could be moving to another country
Historical influence on behaviour
- Carthage-Rome: The Punic Wars
- The German "Vergangenheitsbewältigung"
The Link: From Written Language to Cultural Identity
- written language is a tool which can provoke antagonistic behaviour towards a certain culture
- Universal Facial Expressions
- Amy Cuddy
- Power posing
- Testosterone and Cortisol
- Experiment: Gambling
"Fake it until you make it."
A ToK Presentation by Jana Zieger, Leah Bail & Victoria Dahmen