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christopherj comments on Link: Study finds that using a foreign language changes moral decisions - Less Wrong Discussion
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Some hypotheses: 1) Words in the foreign language are not tainted with morality. Using more neutral words in the problem description would have a similar effect.
2) The extra time taken to parse the foreign language description forces more time to think about the problem. Saying the problem slowly, or writing with a huge font, would have a similar effect.
3) The distraction of translating has an effect. Giving the subjects an additional task to do would have a similar effect.
Other studies showed an effect of language helping to discriminate between things like two different colors (aided if your language uses different words for them). That seemed like a different thing, perhaps an effect of categories and practice.
Some other ways to tell which of these worlds we're living in ...
Test a blunt description ("The trolley will hit the five people and kill them") versus a more verbose one, possibly with extraneous technical detail ("The vehicle, whose mass is N metric tons, will collide with the five individuals with a force of M newtons. Every similar collision on record has resulted in instant fatality.")
Occupy the subjects' working memory by asking them to memorize a phone number or pattern of symbols before the question.
Occupy the subjects' attention by asking them the question while bouncing a basketball, or balancing on one foot, or doing some other activity that requires continuous physical attention.
Another thing to look into is how much giving the people names changes things. Or even back stories.
"Will you let Bob Naylor, a 48-year-old mechanic who is working overtime on the trolley track to save up to pay for his daughter's wedding, die, or will you spare him by swerving the trolley into..."