A negative mood facilitates complex semantic processing in a second language

Abstract Research has demonstrated that positive and negative moods may differently affect semantic processing due to the activation of mood-dependent thinking. Interestingly, recent studies have indicated that the interplay between mood and semantic processing may also be modulated by the language of operation (native [L1] vs. second language [L2]). Still, it remains an open question if and how mood interacts with varying depths of semantic processing, particularly in bilinguals. Here, we show that a negative mood may differently modulate shallow and deep semantic processing in bilinguals at a behavioral level. In two experiments, Polish–English bilinguals, induced into positive and negative moods, performed a lexical decision task (marking shallow semantic processing; Experiment 1) and a semantic decision task (marking deep semantic processing; Experiment 2) with sentences in L1 and L2 of varying semantic complexity: literal, novel metaphoric, and anomalous sentences. While no interactive mood–language effect was observed for shallow semantic processing, we found faster semantic judgments when bilinguals were in a negative relative to positive mood in L2, but not L1, for deep semantic processing. These findings suggest that a negative mood may activate more analytical and effort-maximizing thinking in L2, yet only when the linguistic content requires deeper understanding.