决策者的外语水平对决策过程中的外语效应的调节作用

The Modulation of Decision-Maker’s Foreign Language Proficiency on the Foreign-Language Effect in the Process of Decision-Making

摘要: 与使用母语相比，人们在使用外语进行决策时，往往会更多地使用审慎思维而非直觉思维，从而做出更理性的选择，这种现象被称为外语效应。虽然一些前人研究证实了决策过程中存在外语效应，但是少有研究探究外语效应的影响因素，特别是外语效应是否受制于决策者的外语水平，尚不清楚。因此，本研究采用双因素被试间实验设计，通过两个实验检验不同外语水平的被试在决策过程中是否存在外语效应。实验1的结果表明，外语水平较低的被试表现出了反向的外语效应，即在母语(汉语)情境下比外语(英语)情境下表现出更多使用审慎思维进行决策的趋势，而外语水平中等和较高的被试没有表现出显著的外语效应；改进后的实验2表明，只有外语水平中等的人才会在使用外语进行决策时比在母语情境下决策更多地使用审慎思维，即存在外语效应。

Abstract: The foreign-language effect refers to the phenomenon that using a foreign language increases the contributions of deliberation instead of intuition to our decisions. Many previous studies suggested that the foreign-language effect takes place in the process of decision-making, but there are few studies investigating factors that affect the foreign-language effect, and it remains unclear whether foreign-language proficiency is one of the factors. The present study applied a double-factor between-subject design in two experiments in order to examine the differences in the foreign-language effect that occurs to people with different levels of foreign language proficiency. The results of Experiment 1 suggested that people with low foreign language proficiency are more prone to deliberation in the process of decision-making when using their mother tongue, compared with their counterparts who use a foreign language, and that the foreign-language effect was non-significant as to people with high or medium foreign language proficiency; in Experiment 2, the foreign-language effect only takes place among people with medium foreign language proficiency.