Link: Study finds that using a foreign language changes moral decisions

Vladimir_Golovin

In the new study, two experiments using the well-known "trolley dilemma" tested the hypothesis that when faced with moral choices in a foreign language, people are more likely to respond with a utilitarian approach that is less emotional.

The researchers collected data from people in the U.S., Spain, Korea, France and Israel. Across all populations, more participants selected the utilitarian choice -- to save five by killing one -- when the dilemmas were presented in the foreign language than when they did the problem in their native tongue.

The article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140428120659.htm

The publication:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0094842

In the new study, two experiments using the well-known "trolley dilemma" tested the hypothesis that when faced with moral choices in a foreign language, people are more likely to respond with a utilitarian approach that is less emotional.

The researchers collected data from people in the U.S., Spain, Korea, France and Israel. Across all populations, more participants selected the utilitarian choice -- to save five by killing one -- when the dilemmas were presented in the foreign language than when they did the problem in their native tongue.

The article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140428120659.htm

The publication:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0094842

Seems like a special case of using a non-transparent communication medium to activate System 2 by delaying and/or muting a System 1 response. Similarly discussing an awkward subject feels less embarrassing in a foreign language... until you master it. Have you noticed how people tend to use clinical/scientific terms to avoid connotations when trying to stay "rational"?

Probably a good general rationality technique. Maybe the UN should stop real-time interpreting services and make everyone learn Latin, Esperanto or Lojban?

What other non-transparent communication media are out there? By "non-transparent" I mean one that requires a conscious effort to imbue or tease out a meaning.

What other non-transparent communication media are out there? By "non-transparent" I mean one that requires a conscious effort to imbue or tease out a meaning.

Communicating via blurry text or using a hard-to-read font is a well known one.

2ChristianKl12y

I don't think that either Esperanto or Lojban is the perfect language. Expressing an idea in either of those languages usually takes 1.5 the amount of time as it does in English. I think there room for a new constructed language that does things better.