Research into decision-making is often concentrates on the context of the situation, the gains or losses implied by what we decide to do, rather than on the language, which becomes merely instrumental, a medium through which information flows. Today, this approach has been reverted because psychologists have begun to understand the importance of language in relation to rational thinking.

Although it would seem that the choices we make should be independent of language, a number of studies suggest that the use of a foreign language influences the choice of a particular option. An article published on 3 September in Trends in Cognitive Sciences reflects on the impact of using a foreign language on risk, inference, and morality, and includes a possible explanation as to the causes, such as reduced emotion, psychological distance and increased deliberation time, which are aspects that appear when a language is used that is not the mother tongue. The work is by Albert Costa, ICREA research professor at the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) and  Alice Foucart, both members of the Center for Brain and Cognition (CBC) at UPF, conducted with psychologists from the University of Chicago (USA).

Foreign language and perception of risk

The use of a foreign language affects how people perceive and act in situations of risk. The results of the studies carried out so far suggest that risks seem smaller in a foreign language. For example, when people consider the potential dangers of activities such as “travelling by plane” or of aspects related to “biotechnology”, people perceive the risks associated with these factors as minor and the benefits greater when a foreign language is used. This reduction in the perception of risk is also manifested in monetary transactions.

In psychology, in the paradigm known as “Asian disease”, people tend to be braver when talking in terms of losses (X people will die) and feel an aversion to risk when speaking in terms of gains (Y people will be saved). This asymmetry is reduced when a foreign language is used. Different risk perception is also found in other contexts, and together “this suggests that the risks in a foreign language are assessed differently by people and with more consistency with their decisions”, claim Costa and Foucart, the co-authors of the article.

The common good versus moral standard

Perhaps the most surprising effects of language have been found in the domain of morality, another relevant aspect dealt with by the authors of the article published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Costa and Foucart confirm the fact that when people use a foreign language, they are less sensitive to intent and more sensitive to results, which lies at the heart of issues of an ethical and moral nature.  There is solid proof that individuals are more likely to support utilitarian behaviours in a foreign language. Previous studies have shown that people who use a foreign language are twice as willing to sacrifice a life to save five, compared to those who use their mother tongue.

This effect is repeated independently in several languages: English, Spanish, German, Italian, and suggests that, in the face of deontological prohibitions such as “forbidden to do evil”, conflict with the utilitarian value of promoting the common good makes the use of a foreign language tip the balance towards the good of the majority compared to moral standards, “which is consistent with what is observed according to which people who use a foreign language are less likely to condemn violations of moral or social taboos”, the authors assert.

To better understand the effect of the use of a foreign language on the behaviour of human beings, it would be important to examine systematically the effects of having multiple linguistic origins, the competencies and the role played by culture as factors that, in the opinion of the authors, could come into play in moderating the effects of the foreign language in the decision-making process. This points to a new line of research in the future: to study the relative contributions of these various mechanisms to better understand both the behaviour of people when they use a foreign language and, in general, to be aware of the effect of the languages we use in the choices that we make.

Reference work: 

Sayuri Hayakawa, Albert Costa, Alice Foucart, Boaz Keysar (2016), “Using a Foreign Language Changes Our Choices”, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3 September, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.08.004.