Linguistic Relativity of Political Trust: Effects and Mechanisms

• In Event: Behavioral Effects of Language

Abstract

How does language affect people's sociopolitical cognition and political trust? This study challenges the conventional understanding of the ethnolinguistic theory that language affects people's sociopolitical thoughts by its fixed cultural or ethnic properties and that proficiency is exogenously assigned. Instead, the study contends that the influence of language proficiency is policy conditioned but also multifaceted according to its communication functions. Using analyses of four waves of a nationally representative survey in China, this research shows that, for a politically recognized language, increasing people’s listening proficiency in the official language makes them more aligned with the central government, while speaking proficiency affects people's political efficacy, sociopolitical evaluation, and political trust through two other distinctive mechanisms. The ultimate linguistic relativity that appears in public political thought is a combined outcome of the above effects. This understanding has far-reaching implications for understanding language influence, language policy, and political development in general.

Author

• Yue Hu, Tsinghua University