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Daily reminder that correlation is not the same thing as causation
But still interesting
Reminder that all scientists are extremely aware of the difference between correlation and causation and commenting this on a scientific paper doesn’t make you smarter than the researchers
Thinking in another language is the hallmark of true fluency, vs having to auto-translate in your head how to say something before you say it. So the entire argument around people employing “more careful and deliberative thinking when using their foreign language,” tells me the sample people were not likely fluent speakers of another language.
They may have studied for years and gained strong proficiency - but that is not the same thing as fluency. Once you reach the state of true fluency you are not second guessing yourself all day long about how to say what you want to say – you just say it. You can switch thinking from one language to another, and it’s fairly unconscious.
People who speak several languages fluently also tend to have a strong awareness of cultural norms associated with speakers of those languages. When you straddle different cultures, you start seeing and thinking about a lot of things differently.
If the studies were meant to augment already established science on the impact of foreign language study and acquisition in adults, they should be clarifying at what level of acquisition the sample rests.
The paper for the trolly problem has some interesting details. In experiment 2, those who considered themselves worse at the foreign language were more likely to make the utilitarian choice, which indicates that it might just be a matter of proficiency in the language, rather than whether or not it is the participant’s primary language.
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Previous experiments showed that people are unwilling to risk losing a small amount of money for the chance of winning a bigger sum, even if the odds are tipped in their favour.
“It’s consistent and replicable,” says Simone Sulpizio, an associate professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, who conducted a recent meta-analysis examining the evidence to date, though both he and Białek emphasise that we need more research into the mechanisms behind the effect.
Keysar’s latest study, led by his PhD student Leigh Grant, has shown that the foreign language effect can discourage the creation of false memories.
In a follow-up experiment, the team showed participants two clips of robberies from the films The Pink Panther and Rififi, before playing them audio narratives of the same events that contained some false details.
Silvia Purpuri at the University of Trento, Italy has examined “tolerance of ambiguity”, which concerns people’s appreciation of uncertainty, and their willingness to enter unfamiliar situations.
And if you are considering a controversial new environmental policy, you might try to read about it in a foreign newspaper: the research suggests that this may render you more open-minded to the facts at hand and less easily swayed by your immediate gut reaction.
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