Foreign Language Effects on Judgment and Decision Making

I present four studies in which my coauthors and I investigated whether presenting information in a foreign language, as opposed to the native language, influences judgment and decision-making. Research on judgment and decision-making suggests that there are two routes to judgment and choice: an intuitive, emotional route and an analytic, controlled route. Research on bilingualism suggests that the use of a foreign language influences the intuitive route. It attenuates emotions and dampens the activation of moral and sociocultural norms. Merging these lines of research, my coauthors and I predicted that foreign language would influence judgment and decision-making. We found that it influences moral judgment through a deactivation of moral norms, and that it affects the perception of risk and benefit through an attenuation of negative feelings. I discuss the theoretical and practical significance of the present findings, and point out limitations and possible future developments of this research area.