Behavioral Effects of Language

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The ethnic politics literature has demonstrated the robust negative effects of ethnolinguistic diversity – from political confidence to public goods provisions to generalized trust. One common denominator across these works is the one-to-one assignment of language to identity – i.e., everyone speaks one and only language, and it is this singular language that defines their ethnic identity. Everyone that speaks the same language is part of the ingroup; and likewise, everyone else that does not is rendered into the outgroup. The five papers in this panel challenge this conventional wisdom from a conceptual standpoint when examining the behavioral effects of language. The challenge is twofold.

First, it is possible for people to be bilingual – thereby blurring the boundaries between ingroup and outgroup. The paper by Padmanabhan (India) examines how language exposure – whether to Hindi, English, or the regional vernacular – leads to greater support for identities and ideologies associated with that language. Similarly, Siow (Malaysia) demonstrates how exposure to a second language in school – specifically, English – increased perspective taking and thus outgroup tolerance among Malays. Additionally, the paper by Hu (China) shows how proficiency in the second language affects political trust depending on whether proficiency is in hearing or in speaking.

The second challenge is that it is possible that there is another politicized marker to divide people who speak the same language – thereby creating new boundaries within the ingroup. The paper by Liu et al (Taiwan) shows how accents of the same language can signal someone is possibly of a different national origin – resulting in possible outgroup intolerance. Likewise, Marquardt (Moldova) examines whether Russian-speakers support Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine depends on social mobility and media consumption.

This panel is diverse. It is not only diverse in the country of study (India, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, and Moldova), but also in the country where the presenter is based (United States, China, and Norway). There is also diversity in institutions; in rank (note that the two graduate students on the panel are APSA DDRIG recipients); and in gender and ethnic/racial makeup.

Sub Unit

• Division 11: Comparative Politics

Individual Presentations

• Language Ideology and Internal Migration: A Survey Experiment in Southern India - Deepika Padmanabhan, Harvard University

• Bilingual Education Reduces Outgroup Discrimination through Perspective-Taking - Jeremy Siow, University of Oxford

• Linguistic Relativity of Political Trust: Effects and Mechanisms - Yue Hu, Tsinghua University

• Accents and Tolerance: Experimental Evidence of Taiwanese in Taiwan versus US - Amy H. Liu, University of Texas at Austin; Jeremy Siow, University of Oxford; Charles K.S. Wu, University of South Alabama; Yao-Yuan Yeh, University of St. Thomas

• Linguistic Commonality and Political Affinity: Evidence from Moldova - Kyle L. Marquardt, University of Bergen

Chair

• Amy H. Liu University of Texas at Austin

Discussant

• Thomas Pepinsky Cornell University