Foreign language use increases ‘karma effect’

What goes around comes around – or so we’re more likely to think when using a foreign language.

Researchers have explored the link between language and what’s known as ‘immanent justice thinking’, the idea that good or bad deeds are linked to subsequent good or bad outcomes – even though they are irrationally implausible.

“Imagine reading in the news about an adulterous person who falls victim to a car accident,” explains Dr Janet Geipel from the University of Exeter Business School. “Would you believe that their behaviour somehow caused the accident?”

“People tend to intuitively perceive causal connections between moral actions and life outcomes, even when no causal connection exists— this is what psychologists call immanent justice thinking. Initially considered a characteristic of immature moral reasoning later research has shown that even some adults are susceptible to it.”

The researchers set out to explore whether processing information in a language other than one’s native language affects immanent justice thinking.

In five randomised experiments, 1,875 native speakers of either Italian or German who were proficient in English read a story in which a character engaged in questionable moral behaviour and subsequently experienced misfortune.

The participants read the story either in their native language or in English, and the researchers compared their endorsements of immanent justice.

Across the five experiments, the researchers found that when people read about events in a foreign language, they were more likely to believe that misfortunes happen to people because of their morally questionable behaviour (immanent justice).

Further tests confirmed that this wasn’t because the foreign language was harder to understand or that it caused confusion.

The effect only arose in stories where such beliefs made sense (bad actions followed by misfortune), and not in stories where they didn’t (neutral actions followed by misfortune).

The results suggest that using a foreign language can change how people think about right and wrong in a meaningful way.

The researchers believe this is in part due to foreign language use weakening the brain signal to engage in deeper reflection.

They tested this in one of the five experiments by an additional prompt to foreign language readers that encouraged them to respond rationally, and found this made a difference by reducing the immanent justice effect.

“A common belief is that in your second language you become less emotional and more rational in how you make decisions, but our results contradict this idea,” said Dr Geipel. “We think it’s because in our non-native language we are less inclined to stop and tell ourselves to be rational, there’s a reduction in reflective thinking in this specific context.”

The researchers say the findings could have practical implications in fields such as law and international negotiations.

“Jury members who receive information about a case in a non-native language might, for example, show a higher tendency to endorse immanent justice thinking, potentially leading to biased decisions regarding responsibility,” said Dr Geipel, “although explicit prompts to follow legal instructions could attenuate such tendencies”.

“What goes around comes around: Foreign language use increases immanent justice thinking” is published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.