Can Language Influence Health Decisions? The Role of Foreign Language and Grammatical Structure

The language used to present an argument has long been argued to influence people’s reaction to that argument. This study examined how language and grammatical structure influenced response to health-related dilemmas. We investigated whether medical students’ willingness to receive a medical treatme...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of psycholinguistic research 2023-06, Vol.52 (3), p.957-974
Main Authors: Alkhammash, Reem, Asiri, Yousif A., Alqarni, Ibrahim R., Al-Hoorie, Ali H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adverbials
Arabic language
Argument structure
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
English language
Grammar
Language
Medical language
Medical personnel
Medical Services
Medical students
Psycholinguistics
Psychology
Quantifiers
Second Languages
Semitic Languages
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Summary:The language used to present an argument has long been argued to influence people’s reaction to that argument. This study examined how language and grammatical structure influenced response to health-related dilemmas. We investigated whether medical students’ willingness to receive a medical treatment or to take an action (regarding advancing one’s own health or other people’s health) was influenced by the language (first versus foreign) and the grammatical structures (modifiers and quantifiers) used. Saudi medical students ( N  = 368) read health-related dilemmas using different adverbial modifiers and quantifiers in Arabic or in English. The participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: Arabic with high certainty (i.e., very-modifier and all-quantifier), Arabic with low certainty (no very-modifier and some-quantifier), English with high certainty, and English with low certainty. The results showed that the participants were susceptible to a foreign language effect, but not to a grammatical structure effect. We discuss the implications of these results in relation to how different health-scenarios may affect decision making for health professionals.
ISSN:0090-6905
1573-6555
DOI:10.1007/s10936-022-09918-z