On Language Processing Shaping Decision Making

Abstract

Recent research has revealed that people’s preferences, choices, and judgments are affected by whether information is presented in a foreign or a native language. Here, we review this evidence, focusing on various decision-making domains and advancing a variety of potential explanations for this foreign-language effect on decision making. We interpret the findings in the context of dual-system theories of decision making, entertaining the possibility that foreign-language processing reduces the impact of intuition and/or increases the impact of deliberation on people’s choices. In closing, we suggest future research directions for progressing our understanding of how language and decision-making processes interact when guiding people’s decisions.