You’re as cold as ice, I know -Lou Gramm

We like to think that moral judgment comes in too flavors only–steadfast and rock-solid.  No one want’s to be morally wishy-washy . We apply thoughtful, consistent  principles to the resolution of any moral dilemma that happens to come down the pike. With moral certainty our strength, we reject the irrelevant when we make these important moral decisions. Hopefully.

But new evidence suggests that bilinguals don’t. Scientists have shown that moral certitude among multilinguals depends on whichever way the language wind-vane happens to be blowing at that moment. What’s the evidence for this missing moral fiber?

Researchers, Albert Costa, Alice Foucart and Sayuri Hayakaw asked respondents that classic of moral dilemmas: “Should you sacrifice one man to say five?”

You gotta think about that one. Weigh it even, since its a moral decision So with all that moral heavy lifting going on one would hope that your answer would not depend on the language of the question? Costa and team discovered that it made it  big difference. People using a foreign language made “substantially more utilitarian decisions when faced with such moral dilemmas.” In other words, second-language speakers are are more likely to push. More.

See: TranslationGuy

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