How switching language can change your personality - being-human - 25 June 2008 - New Scientist

Now this is an intriguing piece of research: How switching language can change your personality - being-human - 25 June 2008 - New Scientist: It could be interpreted to support linguistic determinism but I would caution against that interpretation. However, we do need to take the implications on board. Here's what was discovered: "women who were actively involved in both English and Spanish speaking cultures interpreted the same events differently, depending on which language they were using at the time. It is known that people in general can switch between different ways of interpreting events and feelings – a phenomenon known as frame shifting. But the researchers say their work shows that bilingual people that are active in two different cultures do it more readily, and that language is the trigger."
My caution would be based on the whole thing about 'framing', and it would be a simple recognition that different cultures do tend to value various things differently and where these are linguistically marked, the connotative meanings tend to push the framing in certain directions. This is not the same as saying that people are bound to reach certain conclusions by linguistic conditioning or that we cannot reach other conclusions or take on board other frames, merely that it would take more effort to do so. It would also indicate that changing metaphors, frames, dialect etc could unlock greater facilities in conceptualising differently. In turn this would suggest that to achieve creative outcomes from consultations, meetings and decision-making proceedures, we would be best to aim for culturally diverse memberships.