Linguistic relativity in creative thought: How divergent thinking in response to motion events is influenced by satellite‐ and verb‐framed languages

Human creativity and ingenuity partly depend on divergent thinking – the ability to generate many varied, original, and elaborate responses. Prior research has found ample evidence of an effect of cognitive factors, including the organization of semantic networks and associative ability, on divergent thinking. Less is known, however, about how the language we speak shapes this relationship. Specifically, the linguistic relativity hypothesis stresses the influence of a linguistic variation on structural semantic representations that are essential for generating associations. To address this open scientific problem, an experiment with several tasks was conducted (n = 122). The category discrimination task replicated the linguistic relativity effect of satellite-framed (e.g., English) versus verb-framed languages (e.g., Spanish), by showing how English monolinguals, when exposed to motion events, were more attentive to the manner of motion than Spanish monolinguals. The free association task showed, in the same sample, that divergent thinking in response to motion events led English monolinguals to generate more elaborate responses than Spanish monolinguals. Linguistic relativity mediated this effect. No effect was found on the number, diversity, or originality of the responses. These findings contribute new insights into the relationship between linguistic relativity and divergent thinking in response to motion events.