On Language Processing Shaping Decision Making

Abstract

Recent research reveals that people's preferences, choices, and judgments are affected by whether information is presented in a foreign or a native language. Here, we review this evidence focusing on various decision-making domains and advancing a variety of potential explanations for this foreign language effect on decision-making. We interpret the findings in the context of dual-system theories of decision-making, entertaining the possibility that foreign language processing reduces the impact of intuition and/or increases the impact of deliberation on people's choices. In closing, we suggest future directions to progress in our understanding of how language and decision-making interact when guiding people's decisions.

Culture Blind Leadership Research: How Semantically Determined Survey Data May Fail to Detect Cultural Differences

“…Secondly, cognition and behavior in bilingual humans is influenced by the language in which they use in interactions (Hanks, 1996;Arnulf et al, 2014b). It follows from this that the most truly "culturally" determined responses detected in survey statistics are likely to be elicited from respondents to surveys in their native languages (Boroditsky, 2001(Boroditsky, , 2011Boroditsky and Gaby, 2010;Fausey et al, 2010;Costa et al, 2017). Survey designs that use common corporate languages (usually English) may omit the translation problem, but will risk missing the truly "cultural" identity of a bilingual respondent.…”

Language and eyewitness suggestibility

“…In addition, a study by Fortkamp () showed that oral production of a non‐native language (English) required both control and regulation of attention, two central cognitive processes. Even in bilinguals, where both languages are fluent, speakers need to exert language control, that is, to inhibit the nonspoken language in situations where they are allowed to speak only one of the languages (Costa, Vives, & Corey, ). Another difficulty, according to Abutalebi (), might be that it takes longer time for non‐native speakers to retrieve the correct lexical terms given that the neural associations between the words and the concepts are weaker.…”

“…In addition, a study by Fortkamp (2003) showed that oral production of a nonnative language (English) required both control and regulation of attention, two central cognitive processes. Even in bilinguals, where both languages are fluent, speakers need to exert language control, that is, to inhibit the nonspoken language in situations where they are allowed to speak only one of the languages (Costa, Vives, & Corey, 2017).…”

Crime and punishment: Morality judgment in a foreign language.

“…If you do not, your response is deontological and you are operating under the principle that causing harm is morally wrong, regardless of the consequences. Interestingly, individuals more often push the man when this Footbridge dilemma is presented in their foreign tongue (see Costa, Vives, & Corey, 2017 for a review). The dual-process theory of decision-making (Stanovich, 1999) posits that deontological acts (i.e.…”