Reading a nasty word in a second language may not pack the punch it would in your native tongue, thanks to an unconscious brain quirk that tamps down potentially disturbing emotions, a new study finds.
When reading negative words such as “failure” in their non-native language, bilingual Chinese-English speakers did not show the same brain response as seen when they read neutral words such as “aim.” The finding suggests that the brain can process the meaning of words in the unconscious, while “withholding” information from our conscious minds.
“We devised this experiment to unravel the unconscious interactions between the processing ofemotional content and access to the native language system. We think we’ve identified, for the first time, the mechanism by which emotion controls fundamental thought processes outside consciousness,” study researcher Yanjing Wu, a psychologist at Bangor University in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. “Perhaps this is a process that resembles the mental repression mechanism that people have theorized about but never previously located.”
Bilingual people typically respond less emotionally to words in their second language. For example, swear words in a foreign tongue don’t usually feel as shocking; likewise, some research has found that people are more comfortable talking about embarrassing topics in a second language. More.
Comments about this article
Canada
Local time: 02:08
French to English
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I would add that people may not appreciate the impact saying of a swear word in their non-native tongue, as well. I think it is not uncommon, for example, for non-native English speakers to toss the f-word around casually.
Local time: 08:08
French to English
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[Edited at 2012-05-14 21... See more
[Edited at 2012-05-14 21:46 GMT] ▲ Collapse
Georgia
Local time: 10:08
Member (2012)
English to Georgian
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Thomas Mann beleived people can talk freely about love (an embarrassing topic ) only in foreign language. I have noticed that people are more open and socialize better when speaking second language.
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