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Are people really less moral in their foreign language? Proficiency and comprehension matter for the moral foreign language effect in Russian speakers

Previous work has demonstrated that people are more willing to sacrifice one person to save five in a foreign language (FL) than in their native tongue. This may be due to the FL either reducing concerns about sacrificial harm (deontological inclinations) or increasing concerns about overall outcome...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kirova, Alena, Tang, Ying, Conway, Paul
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10332622/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37428758
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287789
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author Kirova, Alena
Tang, Ying
Conway, Paul
author_facet Kirova, Alena
Tang, Ying
Conway, Paul
author_sort Kirova, Alena
collection PubMed
description Previous work has demonstrated that people are more willing to sacrifice one person to save five in a foreign language (FL) than in their native tongue. This may be due to the FL either reducing concerns about sacrificial harm (deontological inclinations) or increasing concerns about overall outcomes (utilitarian inclinations). Moreover, proficiency in a foreign language (FL) may moderate results. To test these possibilities, we investigated the moral foreign language effect (MFLE) in a novel sample of Russian L1/English FL speakers. We employed process dissociation (PD)—a technique that independently assesses concerns about rejecting harm and maximizing outcomes in sacrificial dilemmas, and we assessed measures of objective and subjective foreign language proficiency and of dilemma comprehension. Results replicated the pattern of increased acceptance of sacrificial harm in FL demonstrated in earlier studies, but a PD analysis showed no evidence of increased concerns for utilitarian outcomes in a FL; instead, this pattern was driven by reduced concerns regarding sacrificial harm. However, people who reported better dilemma comprehension in the FL demonstrated both stronger deontological and utilitarian responding, and people with higher objective proficiency displayed stronger utilitarian responding in the FL than those with lower proficiency. These findings show that utilitarian inclinations are affected by reading dilemmas in a foreign language mainly in low-proficiency speakers, and that while emotional concerns for sacrifice are reduced in FL, better comprehension can increase such concerns as well as concern for outcomes.
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spelling pubmed-103326222023-07-11 Are people really less moral in their foreign language? Proficiency and comprehension matter for the moral foreign language effect in Russian speakers Kirova, Alena Tang, Ying Conway, Paul PLoS One Research Article Previous work has demonstrated that people are more willing to sacrifice one person to save five in a foreign language (FL) than in their native tongue. This may be due to the FL either reducing concerns about sacrificial harm (deontological inclinations) or increasing concerns about overall outcomes (utilitarian inclinations). Moreover, proficiency in a foreign language (FL) may moderate results. To test these possibilities, we investigated the moral foreign language effect (MFLE) in a novel sample of Russian L1/English FL speakers. We employed process dissociation (PD)—a technique that independently assesses concerns about rejecting harm and maximizing outcomes in sacrificial dilemmas, and we assessed measures of objective and subjective foreign language proficiency and of dilemma comprehension. Results replicated the pattern of increased acceptance of sacrificial harm in FL demonstrated in earlier studies, but a PD analysis showed no evidence of increased concerns for utilitarian outcomes in a FL; instead, this pattern was driven by reduced concerns regarding sacrificial harm. However, people who reported better dilemma comprehension in the FL demonstrated both stronger deontological and utilitarian responding, and people with higher objective proficiency displayed stronger utilitarian responding in the FL than those with lower proficiency. These findings show that utilitarian inclinations are affected by reading dilemmas in a foreign language mainly in low-proficiency speakers, and that while emotional concerns for sacrifice are reduced in FL, better comprehension can increase such concerns as well as concern for outcomes. Public Library of Science 2023-07-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10332622/ /pubmed/37428758 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287789 Text en © 2023 Kirova et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Kirova, Alena
Tang, Ying
Conway, Paul
Are people really less moral in their foreign language? Proficiency and comprehension matter for the moral foreign language effect in Russian speakers
title Are people really less moral in their foreign language? Proficiency and comprehension matter for the moral foreign language effect in Russian speakers
title_full Are people really less moral in their foreign language? Proficiency and comprehension matter for the moral foreign language effect in Russian speakers
title_fullStr Are people really less moral in their foreign language? Proficiency and comprehension matter for the moral foreign language effect in Russian speakers
title_full_unstemmed Are people really less moral in their foreign language? Proficiency and comprehension matter for the moral foreign language effect in Russian speakers
title_short Are people really less moral in their foreign language? Proficiency and comprehension matter for the moral foreign language effect in Russian speakers
title_sort are people really less moral in their foreign language? proficiency and comprehension matter for the moral foreign language effect in russian speakers
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10332622/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37428758
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287789
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