When Life Gives You Trolleys Add a Foreign Language – The Foreign Language Effect

The majority of students living in a dorm can relate to the feeling of how one cup of coffee with a roommate poses a serious threat to your academic productivity. At some point, the conversation becomes so engaging that at the end, the five-minute break between study sessions becomes a two-hour-long discussion. I am no exception, as it happened to me not too long ago, when my roomie, a foreigner, and I engaged in an interesting debate about mental processing in native and foreign languages. So, curiosity killed the cat and I decided to dig up more information, to see if using other languages influences our decision-making. 

The foreign language effect

Learning a foreign language has become a vital skill in a world that is becoming more and more connected. We use language to communicate with each other, share our ideas, problems, emotions, and make decisions. Our everyday life consists of numerous choices including moral decisions which contribute to our optimal social functioning (Brouwer 2019; Keysar et al., 2012). Have you ever asked yourself if you would make the same decision in a foreign language as you would in your mother tongue?

In the footbridge dilemma, five people are tied to a train track and the only way to save them from being hit by the train is to push a bystander onto the train track, killing one person and saving five. Would you be willing to do that?  Researchers noticed that people were more prepared to sacrifice the life of one individual to save five others when the task was presented in their foreign compared to their native language. However, they did not find the same results in other moral dilemma tasks i.e. switch dilemma, where a person, instead of pushing a bystander onto the rails, can divert a train to the other track using a switch, therefore killing one individual (Costa et al., 2014). 

It is possible that using different languages elicits different moral judgments. This phenomenon is called The foreign language effect (FLE). Scientists argue that using a foreign language decreases decision-making biases, and increases systematic conclusion-making (Keysar et al., 2012).

Why does the use of a foreign language affect our judgment?

Different responses indicate distinct process activation during moral judgment-making in a native or foreign language. A possible explanation for the differences in moral decision-making lies in the dual-process theory. Our decision-making process is influenced by two types of thinking. The first one (System 1) is rapid, intuitive, and affective while the other one (System 2) is slow, rational, and systematic (Kahneman, 2003). Judgments that include the personal rights and duties of an individual are supported by a frequently biased emotional system. In contrast, judgments that contribute to the greater good by maximizing benefits and minimizing costs are driven by controlled processes. According to the theory, our decision-making process is guided by the interplay of the emotional and rational systems. 

The underlying cognitive mechanisms of FLE are not yet clear, but some possible theories can shed light on our understanding of the effect (Circi et al., 2021).  Firstly, using a foreign language enhances cognitive control (Kahneman, 2011). Cognitive capacity is limited and there is only a certain amount of information that can be processed (Baddly, 2000). One might assume that thinking in a non-native language, compared to the native language, is more effortful and complex. As a result, people would tend to use more affective processing and would be influenced by cognitive biases due to cognitive overload (Alter et al., 2007). However, there is evidence that supports the idea of foreign languages having the opposite effect. It is believed that decisions made in a foreign language are processed more systematically and therefore reducing decision biases (Circi et al., 2021, Kahneman 2011).

Secondly, emotional distancing might occur while speaking in a non-native language (Keysar et al., 2012). A large body of subjective (self-report), as well as objective (electrodermal response) ratings, revealed that although bilinguals understand the meaning of emotional words (e.g. taboo words, expressions of love), they respond to them less emotionally in a foreign language. There is also evidence that emotional activation is not that elevated when bilinguals hear emotional words in their second language compared to their native language (Puntoni et al., 2009; Sulpizio et al., 2019). Referring to a switch and footbridge dilemma, authors argue that pulling a switch is considered less personal and emotionally involving than pushing a human onto the tracks. The reason why we are emotionally distant from our foreign language lies in the language learning process. The mother tongue is acquired in a naturalistic, emotionally rich environment, while a second language is frequently acquired in a school setting. As children, we simultaneously associate different words with emotions and internalize their meaning. Consequently, judgments made in our native language are more automatic, intuitive, and influenced by potential cognitive biases (Cipolletti et al., 2016; Costa et al., 2014).

What can influence the foreign language effect?

Perceived emotionality of language can be impacted by the frequency of use, acquisition order, and proficiency (Dewaele, 2004; Pavlenko, 2012). For example, linguistic competencies learned at an early age can contribute to higher foreign language proficiency, additionally increasing emotionality and making foreign languages closer to the native language (Brouwer, 2020; Circi et al., 2021). Also, the modality in which dilemmas are presented plays an important role in FLE. People make more rational decisions while using a foreign language in the listening task, compared to the reading task (Brouwer, 2020). Additionally, neuroscientists are also making headway in the field of the foreign language effect. For example, Greene et al. (2004) investigate how different parts of the brain are activated during our decision-making regarding moral judgments. In a recent study, Zheng et al. (2020) provide evidence that emotion-related regions (amygdala, prefrontal cortex) may regulate differences between individuals in foreign languages affects judgment and decision making.

Conclusion

There is a possibility to manipulate mental processes involved in moral decision-making. When we use a foreign language, our moral judgments are affected. On the one hand, our analytical thinking (System 2) is not interrupted during the decision-making process. On the other hand, using a foreign language leads to a reduction in the emotional process, thus reducing decision biases (Keysar et al., 2012). As Hayakawa et al. (2017) conclude people making decisions in a foreign language do not think more, but they feel less. However, it is important to note that different factors such as modality of presented stimuli, frequency of second language use, acquisition order, and proficiency of a foreign language also play an important role in the decision-making process.

Although results regarding the foreign language effect are promising, there is still a lack of systematic evidence that would support its ecological validity. Further research should investigate the effect in an environment that closely mimics real life. Because languages differ from each other in cultural factors as well as grammatical characteristics, it would be interesting to investigate if there is also any difference in cognitive processing of information – but these are questions for another time, for another “5 minutes“ cup of coffee.

About the author

My name is Daša Gajšek, and I am a psychology student from Slovenia. The brain and behaviour of humans have been my field of interest since I was a child, and when I realised the topics are related to psychology my passion to investigate and find logical explanations behind peoples’ thinking became even stronger. This year I came upon a book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman that deepened my passion to learn more about cognitive psychogy. Fascinated by our decision making process and other components of our cognition, I am inspired to continue my studies in the field of neuroscience. 

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