We Are What We Speak

The language we speak predicts a range of economic and health behaviors, from how much money we save for retirement to how much we exercise, according to research by Keith Chen, a behavioral economist at the Yale School of Management.

Chen found that speakers of languages that do not distinguish between the present and the future save more money, retire with more wealth, smoke less, practice safer sex, and are less obese. “There’s a connection between how you feel about the future and how your language forces you to talk about the future,” says Chen.