<p>I tried very hard to find references on this in Google Scholar and Web of Science, but I fear I don't have enough experience with this area.</p>

<p>My partner is great at Spanish, and informed me that in the Spanish language you don't say "I lost the jacket," you say something like "The jacket was lost to me."</p>

<p>Could such grammatical differences lead to increases in collectivist culture or more tightly knit social fabrics in places like Mexico as opposed to individualist countries like the US?</p>

<p>Is this question too big? How would you find any relevant studies on this? Are there any other phenomena you are aware of where the structure of a language affects macro phenomena like culture?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-31T15:56:56.820Z
I'm too lazy to write up a full answer now, but google Linguistic Relativity
jona
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-02T22:53:40.190Z
This is so cool - thank you! Exactly what I was looking for and had no idea existed :)

Now I wonder if anyone has studied linguistic relativity in terms of large-scale political leanings!
lifer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-20T05:50:26.027Z
I'm not sure about politics, but there is [this study](http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797610371344) where (the same!) Arabic-Hebrew bilinguals showed racial bias against Jews when tested in Arabic, and racial bias against Arabs when tested in Hebrew...
Arnon Weinberg
<personality><language><linguistics><cross-cultural-psychology><political-psychology>
Do grammatical differences in language affect politics?
lifer
# Do grammatical differences in language affect politics?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-12-28)

I tried very hard to find references on this in Google Scholar and Web of Science, but I fear I don't have enough experience with this area.

My partner is great at Spanish, and informed me that in the Spanish language you don't say "I lost the jacket," you say something like "The jacket was lost to me."

Could such grammatical differences lead to increases in collectivist culture or more tightly knit social fabrics in places like Mexico as opposed to individualist countries like the US?

Is this question too big? How would you find any relevant studies on this? Are there any other phenomena you are aware of where the structure of a language affects macro phenomena like culture?

**Tags:** personality, language, linguistics, cross-cultural-psychology, political-psychology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I'm too lazy to write up a full answer now, but google Linguistic Relativity  
> **username_0**: This is so cool - thank you! Exactly what I was looking for and had no idea existed :)  Now I wonder if anyone has studied linguistic relativity in terms of large-scale political leanings!  
> **username_2**: I'm not sure about politics, but there is [this study](http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797610371344) where (the same!) Arabic-Hebrew bilinguals showed racial bias against Jews when tested in Arabic, and racial bias against Arabs when tested in Hebrew...  

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