SynthesisPsychonomic bulletin & review2021
The foreign language effect on decision-making: A meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Psychonomic bulletin & review, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The effect of cognitive load, ego depletion, induction and time restriction on moral judgments about sacrificial dilemmas: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Pooled it
- The Reverse Moral Foreign Language Effect in a Self-Driving Car Dilemma.International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie · 2026Article
- Rethinking language, cognition and assessment in psychosis: How bilingualism challenges psychiatry and how natural language processing can help.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Dark Personality, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Convicted Offenders.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The Impact of Foreign Language on Meta-Reasoning in Moral Decisions.Journal of cognition · 2026Article
- Cognitive processes of ingroup favoritism across 20 countries: An eye-tracking investigation of culture, behavior, and cognition.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Foreign-language effects in cross-cultural behavioral research: Evidence from the Tanzanian Hadza.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Foreign and Regional Languages Make You Less Deontological.Journal of cognition · 2024Article
- Elucidating the emotional persona in the Romanian university students' academic discourse: a corpus-based exploration.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Language Nativeness Modulates Physiological Responses to Moral vs. Immoral Concepts in Chinese-English Bilinguals: Evidence from Event-Related Potential and Psychophysiological Measures.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Why Should We Study the Foreign Language Effect: Debiasing through Affecting Metacognition?Journal of Intelligence · 2023Article
- Meanness trumps language: Lack of foreign language effect in early bilinguals' moral choices.PloS one · 2023Article
- Article
- How providing public COVID-19 mitigation instructions in a foreign language can increase people's sense of control.PloS one · 2022Article
- Testing the Foreign Language Effect on Cognitive Reflection in Older Adults.Brain sciences · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In recent years, a growing body of literature has shown that being in a foreign language (FL) context affects the way in which people make choices. This phenomenon is known as the foreign language effect (FLE). The FLE affects both moral decision-making and risk-aversion tendencies, but no cumulative evidence is available. Herein, we aimed to estimate, through a meta-analytical approach, the effect of being in an FL context as compared with that of a native language (NL). We found 17 studies matching our criteria and, in total, 47 experiments were included (N = 38 investigated the FLE in the moral decision-making domain; N = 9 investigated the FLE in the risk-aversion domain). Results showed that FL affects participants' decisions as compared with NL in both the moral decision-making and risk-aversion domains, inducing participants to be more willing to accept harm in order to maximize outcomes in the former and reducing risk aversion in the latter. In addition, two metaregressions were performed on the studies that investigated the moral decision-making domain in order to assess whether participants' proficiency in the FL, or NL-FL similarity, moderated the observed effect. Our findings indicate that proficiency in the FL does not moderate the observed effect, while NL-FL similarity does. Our results support previous findings on the FLE and provide suggestions for future research.
Indexed as
Identifiers
33555512What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.