Priming Effects of Language On Emotion Judgments in Spanish—English Bilinguals

Abstract

This study examined the possibility that bilinguals judge the emotions of others differently when making those judgments in different languages and the degree to which individual differences in emotion regulation could account for such language differences. Spanish- and English-speaking Mexican bilinguals were asked to judge emotions in facial expressions in Spanish and English. Participants were more accurate in judging emotion in English but inferred greater intensity of subjective experience in the expresser in Spanish. They also had higher emotion regulation scores in Spanish. Their Spanish (but not English) emotion regulation scores completely mediated the judgment differences on emotion recognition and partially mediated the differences in the ratings of subjective experiences of others. Thus, the participants did indeed judge emotions differently as a function of language, and those differences were accounted for by their own emotion regulation processes.