Speaking in a second language may shift your moral compass – but it can’t overpower it
By Irini Mavrou, Associate professor, Universidad Nebrija; UCL, Andreas Kyriakou, Profesor Asociado (Lingüística Aplicada), Universidad Nebrija ·
In today’s interconnected world, millions of people move between two or more languages every day. They may negotiate at work in one language, speak with family in another, and follow news, entertainment and social media across several others.
Using multiple languages can deeply change the way a person sees the world. Research has suggested that thinking and speaking in different languages can fundamentally shift the way we reason and behave, and even change our morality.
Some studies have suggested that using a second language encourages people to make more rational, utilitarian choices, meaning they prioritise the greatest good for the greatest number of people. This is possibly because moral dilemmas feel less emotionally charged when processed in a second language.
But the effect is not cut and dried – other studies have found little or no such effect.
One reason for these mixed findings is that language is only one part of the story. People do not enter a dilemma as a blank slate – they also bring values, past experiences, and sense of self. To date, most research has focused primarily on which language people use, while paying less attention to the person making the decision.
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One psychological characteristic that may partially explain these differences is a person’s moral identity: how central morality is to their sense of self. For some people, being honest, fair and compassionate forms an essential part of their self-concept, while for others, these qualities might not play such a strong role in their core identity.
Researchers have consistently found that people with a stronger moral identity are more likely to behave ethically, and to experience stronger emotional reactions when their values are challenged.
Despite decades of research on bilingualism and moral judgement, very few studies have examined whether these cornerstones of human personality can explain how bilinguals make moral decisions.
Language isn’t everything
To explore this question, we conducted a study. We recruited 106 native speakers of Greek with an upper-intermediate or advanced level of English.
Participants responded to four moral dilemmas. Two involved sacrificial harm: for example, whether it would be acceptable to kill one person to save many others. The other two involved honesty and interpersonal trust: whether to lie on a CV to improve one’s chances of getting a job, and whether to reveal an act of infidelity to a partner.
Participants also completed a questionnaire measuring two aspects of moral identity: moral self and moral integrity. Half of the participants completed the study entirely in Greek, and the other half completed it in English.
Simply switching from Greek to English did not change people’s decisions. Participants were no more likely to choose the utilitarian option or reject it simply because they were using one language rather than the other.
This adds to growing evidence that the so-called “foreign language effect” is not as universal as once thought. Whether language influences judgement may depend on many other factors, including individual characteristics such as moral identity.
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Different language, different self?
Where language did make a difference was in how participants thought about themselves. People who completed the study in their native Greek placed greater importance on being a moral person than those who completed it in English.
One possible explanation is that our first language is deeply connected to childhood, family life and the social environments where we first learn values such as honesty, fairness and responsibility. Simply using our first language may make these aspects of our identity more accessible.
However, this effect did not extend to the motivation to act according to one’s principles. In other words, speaking a first language may change how strongly we perceive our own moral identity, but does not change our commitment to behaving morally.
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The person behind the decision
One finding stood out: individual differences in moral identity consistently predicted how participants would respond to the dilemmas.
Participants with stronger moral identity reported stronger emotional reactions, and were more likely to reject dishonest or harmful actions. This pattern was particularly clear in dilemmas involving everyday acts of honesty, such as lying on a CV or deciding whether to reveal infidelity.
We also found that participants often reported stronger emotions when completing the study in English, their second language, than in Greek. However, these stronger emotional reactions did not lead to different choices. Feeling more emotional in a second language does not necessarily lead to different decisions.
We rarely make moral choices in silence. We make them in relationships: with colleagues, partners, friends, families and communities. For bilinguals, these relationships often involve moving between languages.
This has consequences far beyond the lab. As more people study, work and build relationships across languages, we need to better understand how moral identity develops in multilingual settings, where people often have to navigate difficultchoices in a shared language that they did not grow up speaking.
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Source: The Conversation — Irini Mavrou, Associate professor, Universidad Nebrija; UCL, Andreas Kyriakou, Profesor Asociado (Lingüística Aplicada), Universidad Nebrija.
Originally published by The Conversation Global