Using a Foreign Language Increases Risk-Taking in Prenatal Testing Decisions but Not due to Attenuated Emotional Responses

Abstract

People take more risks when deciding on their foreign language. In three lab experiments (N = 424), we explored two explanations of this phenomenon: reduced anticipation of regret or increased accessibility of risk-increasing thoughts. Participants in native or foreign language conditions considered two prenatal tests: a less sensitive but safe and a more sensitive one—their task was to specify the level of risk of miscarriage of the more sensitive test while still choosing it. Subsequently, they estimated the anticipated regret associated with not selecting the riskier test and discovering the child has a detectable disorder (Experiments 1 and 2) or with taking the riskier test and miscarrying (Experiment 3). Three studies confirmed a greater willingness to accept risk when using a foreign language (meta-analytic effect d = 0.40), but this effect was not mediated by changes in the accessibility of thoughts or anticipated regret.