Do Bilinguals Behave Differently Depending on Language? Investigating the Foreign Language Effect Among Balanced Bilinguals

Recent psycholinguistic research demonstrates that using a foreign language changes behavior. This so-called foreign language effect has been shown to reduce decision-making biases in individual decision-making tasks among... [ view full abstract ]

Recent psycholinguistic research demonstrates that using a foreign language changes behavior. This so-called foreign language effect has been shown to reduce decision-making biases in individual decision-making tasks among foreign language learners. This paper investigates whether a similar effect is present among balanced bilinguals. In an effort to replicate previous findings, French-English balanced bilinguals participated in tasks where the foreign language effect has been previously tested: specifically the Disease Problem, the Cognitive Reflection Test, a risk elicitation task, and a Public Goods Game (PGG). In addition, I investigate the presence of the foreign language effect in two games wherein the presence of the effect has not been tested before: the Ultimatum Game (UG) and a Modified Dictator Game (MDG). My results provide some evidence that the foreign language effect is present among balanced bilinguals, albeit with a smaller magnitude than the one observed among foreign language learners. Additionally, I find that proposers using their non-dominant language in UG give away more money compared to those using their dominant language; however there were no differences in the corresponding acceptance rates from responders. Finally, I find no evidence of a foreign language effect in the MDG.