Moral Judgement in Early Bilinguals: Language Dominance Influences Responses to Moral Dilemmas

Abstract

The Foreign-Language effect (FLe) on morality describes how late bilinguals make different decisions on moral judgements, when presented in either their native or foreign language. However the relevance of this phenomenon to early bilinguals, where a language's “nativeness” is less distinct, is unknown. This study aims to verify the effect of early bilinguals' languages on their moral decisions and examine how language experience may influence these decisions. Eighty-six early English-Chinese bilinguals were asked to perform a moral dilemmas task consisting of personal and impersonal dilemmas, in either English or Mandarin Chinese. Information on language experience factors were also collected from the participants. Findings suggest that early bilinguals do show evidence of a language effect on their moral decisions, which is dependent on how dominant they are in the language. Particularly, the more dominant participants were in their tested language, the larger the difference between their personal and impersonal dilemma response choice. In light of these findings, the study discusses the need to re-examine how we conceptualize the FLe phenomenon and its implications on bilinguals' moral judgement. It also addresses the importance of treating bilingualism as multidimensional, rather than a unitary variable.

The Interplay Between Absolute Language and Moral Reasoning on Endorsement of Moral Foundations

“…Perhaps because the association between language and cognition is relatively robust (Carroll, 1956;Zlatev and Blomberg, 2015), it should be no surprise that variations in many aspects of language can influence moral judgments and opinions. For example, individuals tend to make more utilitarian than deontological decisions when moral dilemmas are presented in a foreign language (Costa et al, 2014), and when individuals are bilingual (Wong and Ng, 2018). Our studies highlight a more subtle and interactive effect of language and thinking style on attitudes, such that the language style within a particular language (English) interacts with moral reasoning to influence agreement with rigid (deontological) statements.…”

Positive Learners’ Responses on Moral Values Based Stories: Constructing and Developing Knowledge

“…Inserting moral education values in English as a foreign language classroom is by learning its curricula based on the assumption that it assists students in fostering their linguistics, cognitive skill, social awareness, emotion, critical thinking, and a tolerant view (Shaaban, 2008). Asking the students to do personal and impersonal dilemma task to know how bilingual language affects the different decision on moral judgment and to know how language experience affect their decision (Wong & Ng, 2018). Teacher expectation affects the attitudes of the students about English lessons positively and improves their academic achievement (Toksoy & Acar, 2019).…”

Utilitarian Decisions In Monolingual And Bilingual Children

“…Contrast scores for each participant for each scenario were calculated by subtracting the utilitarian rating for the personal scenario version from the rating of the impersonal version. The more dominant an individual was in the language they were asked dilemmas in, the greater difference there was between personal and impersonal dilemmas in willingness to make a utilitarian choice (Wong & Ng, 2018). No difference was found in the amount of utilitarian choices made between the two languages.…”

“…Early bilinguals have learned both of their languages very early in life, and both languages are typically considered to be native languages. In contrast to this prediction, more recent research has in fact suggested that response patterns consistent with the FLe can be found in early adult bilinguals, in that utilitarian decisions are more likely to be made or seen as acceptable when participants are asked in a regional or non-dominant language (Miozzo et al, 2020, Wong & Ng, 2018. If differences between one's two early languages, such as when or how often they are used, can influence responses to moral dilemmas, then the FLe doesn't appear to be just a foreign language effect.…”

“…The study indicated that a utilitarian choice is more acceptable to the individual in the nondominant language, based on the individual's own rating of how willing they were to make the choice. The researchers concluded that it is easier for, or seen as more acceptable by, an individual to make a utilitarian choice in a personal dilemma when it is presented in a non-dominant language (Wong & Ng, 2018).…”