Citation

Hayakawa S, Tannenbaum D, Costa A, Corey JD, Keysar B. Psychol. Sci. 2017; 28(10): 1387-1397.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Chicago.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Association for Psychological Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1177/0956797617720944

PMID

28806137

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.

Language: en

Keywords

dual process; foreign language; moral judgment; open data; open materials; process dissociation