You and Betty and the Nancy's and Bill's and Joes and Jane's will find in the study of science

a richer, more rewarding life.

Hey, welcome to Inquiring Minds. I'm Indravis Gontas. This is a podcast that explores the space

where science and society collide. We want to find out what's true, what's left to discover,

and why it matters. In past episodes, we've talked about how language shapes how we think,

and how the internet is shaping how we speak.

But there's another way that speech influences us. It's also how we form social identities,

our own end of those around us. How you speak can be an indicator of your race, ethnicity,

your class, your socioeconomic status, your education, your geographical location,

your age, so many other things about you. And yet we don't often think about how we speak

as signaling so many different messages to each other. So at a time when we're listening to a lot of

speeches, when we're making decisions

about our values and political beliefs, I thought it was important to talk to an expert about the

role that language plays in our social world. Katie Kinsler is a professor of psychology at the

University of Chicago. Her most recent book is called How You Say It, Why You Talk the Way You Do and What It Says About You.

Catherine Kinsler, welcome to Inquiring Minds.

Thanks so much for having me. I'm really glad to be here.

So in the past on this podcast, we've talked about how language shapes are thinking.

And here you are telling us that language

also shapes who we are. So can you start by kind of telling us how you got interested in this

topic and what made you think that the way that we speak is actually fundamental to who we are?

Sure. So if you look out into the world, it's really obvious that we have a tremendous number of social groups. And so it seems to be something that's really fundamental to our human nature, this idea that, you know, we like people who are like us. We often divide the world into in groups and out groups. And some of them are really prominent and visible race, gender, religion, nationality, political affiliation, and so forth.

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