Effect Of Foreign Language On Framing Effect In Risk Decision Making

Along with the increasing internationalization,bilinguals need to switch between two different languages constantly.Series of studies have shown that these shifts in language mode may affect bilinguals' decision-making mechanisms across different languages,such as that framing effect of risk decision in the native language may be reduced in the foreign language modes.Thus,how foreign language may affect bilingual decision-making warrant further in-depth investigation.Using a series of risk decision tasks,this study explored how language mode,risk framing type,and self-relevance affect bilinguals decision-making mechanism.The study tested Chinese-English bilinguals with a series of 16 self-designed risk decision tasks,in which 38 subjects indicated their decision in various scenarios of risk decision.All scenarios were manipulated in balanced manner across three independent variables: language mode(native vs.foreign),risk framework type(gain frame,loss frame),self-relevance(related,unrelated).Participants' risk decisions(RD)results and reaction time(RT)were recorded automatically though E-prime 2.0 and were used as the indexes to compare the Chinese-English learners' risk decision processing Mechanism.Repeated measures analysis of variance(ANOVA)results on RD showed a main effect of language and frame,with participants making significantly more conservative decisions in the gain frame than in loss frame and more rational decisions in the foreign language context as compared with native language.Moreover,the interaction of language mode and self-relevance was found,where participants made more consistent decisions in the foreign language than in the native language.ANOVA results on RT showed that participants responded to self-related information more slowly than selfunrelated information in their native language.Meanwhile,decisions in the gain frame were responded more quickly than in the loss frame,However,these differences in RT disappeared in foreign language.Overall,these results indicate a robust foreign language effect in cultural information processing.Chinese-English bilinguals tend to rely more on the intuition processing in their native language.Moreover,they tend to be more emotionally activated when they are dealing with information involving themselves than the irrelevant information in the native language,which further enhances their deliberate processing.Therefore,they tend to make more consistent decisions in their native language.However,risk decision in the foreign language enhances bilinguals' cognitive load and lead to more deliberate processing.