No foreign language effect in self-sacrificial moral dilemmas

Research questions: The Moral Foreign Language Effect is a phenomenon in which individuals exhibit lower moral engagement (i.e., are simultaneously less deontological and less utilitarian) when using a foreign language compared to their native language. This paper reports on three experiments involving bilingual participants to investigate the impact of foreign language on moral judgment in self-sacrifice dilemmas. Design: In three experiments, we asked N = 425 participants whether they would self-sacrifice to save other people. In Experiment 1, the people to be saved were strangers. In Experiment 2, they were relatives. Experiment 3 replicated the first two with the addition of the control condition with the option to sacrifice a stranger instead. Data and analysis: Experiments 1 and 3 showed no effect of language on willingness to self-sacrifice. In Experiment 2, the participants using a foreign language were less willing to sacrifice themselves. Conclusions: Language has no consistent effect on participants’ willingness to sacrifice themselves or others. Originality: Contrary to previous studies on the issue, we controlled both for the beneficiaries (strangers vs. relatives) and the method of saving them (self-sacrifice vs. sacrifice of a stranger). Significance: Our results cast doubt on the robustness of the moral Foreign Language Effect. Limitations: We limited our research design to two language pairs. Failure to replicate Experiment 2 results in Experiment 3 could be an effect of the different language pairs used in both experiments.