Interesting new paper (anyone have a link to an ungated version). Abstract (emphasis added):
Would you make the same decisions in a foreign language as you would in your native tongue? It may be intuitive that people would make the same choices regardless of the language they are using, or that the difficulty of using a foreign language would make decisions less systematic. We discovered, however, that the opposite is true: Using a foreign language reduces decision-making biases. Four experiments show that the framing effect disappears when choices are presented in a foreign tongue. Whereas people were risk averse for gains and risk seeking for losses when choices were presented in their native tongue, they were not influenced by this framing manipulation in a foreign language. Two additional experiments show that using a foreign language reduces loss aversion, increasing the acceptance of both hypothetical and real bets with positive expected value. We propose that these effects arise because a foreign language provides greater cognitive and emotional distance than a native tongue does.
Speakers of multiple languages: have you noticed a similar pattern in your own lives?
Speakers of multiple languages: have you noticed a similar pattern in your own lives?
The most obvious difference to me is that I can tolerate and even enjoy some things in English that I am unable to tolerate in German. For example, when I hear certain kinds of Hip hop or gangster rap in German I am instantly disgusted. When I hear similar lyrics in English then I am merely amused.
I am also much quicker to dislike people who speak German than people who speak English. For example, if I listen to some of what American politicians say I am just amused. If people utter similar things in German then my emotional reaction is much stronger.
It sounds like you're not treating foreign language speakers as members of your society, so when they say violent or politically abhorrent things, you don't get worked up about it because they're not plausible threats. They're part of a different community, they're someone else's problem.
Regarding music, I certainly find I can accept mindless bubblegum pop a lot better if it's in Japanese than in my native English. That might be a different phenomenon though.
FWIW, I'm from Germany and feel the same way.
I wonder if folks from other countries experience comparable phenomena? Or is German just an unusually annoying language?
5Philipp Risius
My native tongue is also German, and I can confirm your statements.
Well, it's just anecdotal evidence, but here are my observations:
When I'm writing text in English, I take more time to express my thoughts, rewriting passages until I think they actually express what I mean. This might make my statements more precise and thought-through than otherwise. I have especially noticed that effect on IRC: While, when I'm in a German channel, I just write my thoughts down as they come, in #lesswrong, when I'm trying to make a point, writing stuff takes longer, and the discussion might have already flown on once I'm ready for submitting my ponderings.
Interesting new paper (anyone have a link to an ungated version). Abstract (emphasis added):