Abstract
Would you kill one person to save five? People are more willing to accept such utilitarian action when using a foreign language than when using their native language. In six experiments, we investigated why foreign-language use affects moral choice in this way. On the one hand, the difficulty of using a foreign language might slow people down and increase deliberation, amplifying utilitarian considerations of maximizing welfare. On the other hand, use of a foreign language might stunt emotional processing, attenuating considerations of deontological rules, such as the prohibition against killing. Using a process-dissociation technique, we found that foreign-language use decreases deontological responding but does not increase utilitarian responding. This suggests that using a foreign language affects moral choice not through increased deliberation but by blunting emotional reactions associated with the violation of deontological rules.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1387-1397 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Psychological Science |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 1 2017 |
Funding
This project was supported by grants from the John Temple-ton Foundation (37775), the National Science Foundation (1520074), the Spanish Government (PSI2011-23033, Consol-ider Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-00048), the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PSI2014-52181-P), the Catalan Government (SGR 2009-1521), and the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework (FP7/ 2007–2013 Cooperation Grant Agreement 613465-AThEME). J. D. Corey was supported by a grant from the Catalan Government (FI-DGR). S. Hayakawa was supported by a Harper Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Chicago.
Keywords
- dual process
- foreign language
- moral judgment
- open data
- open materials
- process dissociation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Psychology