Dewaele, Jean‐Marc;
Mavrou, Irini;
Kyriakou, Andreas;
Lorette, Pernelle;
(2023)
The role of language and emotional intelligence in judgments of real-life social and moral transgressions among Greek, Hungarian, and British users of English.
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making
10.1002/bdm.2356.
(In press).
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Abstract
Previous research suggests that people are more prone to commit moral transgressions when they face moral dilemmas in a second language (LX) as opposed to their first language(s) (L1). This study investigated the influence of language, emotional intelligence, and the degree of severity of real moral transgressions on bilinguals' judgments of offense seriousness, the intensity of the emotions they experienced, and the punishments they proposed for the perpetrators. To this end, 256 British L1 users, 209 Greek–English bilinguals, and 187 Hungarian–English bilinguals watched four videos presenting moral transgressions of mild and extreme severity. Data were analyzed by means of robust linear mixed‐effects models and moderated mediation analyses. For the extreme severity videos, the results revealed strong correlations between offensiveness, emotionality ratings, and proposed punishments for the perpetrators. However, the Greek and the Hungarian participants who watched the videos in their LX English reported lower offensiveness and emotionality ratings and less harsh punishments for the perpetrators than they did in their L1 (Greek and Hungarian, respectively). Furthermore, the role of language in the proposed punishments for the perpetrators was mediated by emotional intensity, but only for the extreme severity stimuli. The results also suggest that higher levels of emotional intelligence are linked with tougher judgments of offense seriousness and stronger emotions when watching real moral transgressions. These findings highlight that the moral foreign language effect does not only exist in the hypothetical moral realm but affects perceptions of offensiveness and emotionality and decisions for the future of perpetrators in real‐life situations.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The role of language and emotional intelligence in judgments of real-life social and moral transgressions among Greek, Hungarian, and British users of English |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/bdm.2356 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.2356 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | emotionality, moral dilemmas, moral foreign language effect, offense seriousness, punishment |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10179835 |
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