This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Weiqi Gao. Original Post: An Interesting Experiment: Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Feed Title: Weiqi Gao's Weblog Feed URL: http://www.weiqigao.com/blog/rss.xml Feed Description: Sharing My Experience... Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Weiqi Gao Latest Posts From Weiqi Gao's Weblog

I have heard of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in the context of programming languages, usually in the form "Visual Basic will rot your brain" or "Java programmers will never 'get' the beauty of Ruby".

However, I was exposed to a series of social psychological experiments that seem to affirm the hypothesis in the 2003 book The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why by Richard E. Nisbett, a psychology professor at University of Michigan.

The most interesting experiment is the following:

Richard E. Nisbett: We presented participants with sets of three words (e.g., panda, monkey, banana) and ask them to indicate which two of the three were most closely related.

The surprising findings of the experiment (to me, at the lest) is that the answers to the question are dependent on the language the question is being asked in. When I tried a similar question on myself, I did give different answers:

Q: Which two of the three words: panda, monkey, banana are most closely related?
A: panda and monkey.

问：以下三个词中哪两个关系最近：大熊猫，猴子，香蕉？
答：猴子和香蕉。

Both answers, though different, feels pretty natural to me.

How about you? If your first language is not English, would you answer the question differently if the question is translated into your first language?