Reading Summary of Costa et al. (2014)

1. Aim, Hypothesis and Prediction 1) What is the aim of the study?
According to psychologists, moral judgment seems to be driven by emotional and/or rational forces. The study aims to find out whether using a foreign language will affect these processes.

2) What is the hypothesis?
Moral judgment in foreign languages will be less impacted by the emotional force.

3) What is the prediction?
Moral judgment in foreign languages should be more rational and utilitarian than judgment in native languages.

2. Method
Experiment 1 1) Who are the participants?
317 native/foreign language speakers: 112 English/Spanish in the US, 80 Korean/English in Korea, 107 English/French in France, 18 Spanish or English/Hebrew in Israel 2) What was the procedure of the experiment?
Participants were interviewed in native or foreign language ambiance. They read the scenario and picture of the footbridge version of trolley moral dilemma: pushing a man off the bridge to stop a coming train so as to save five people or not. They were then asked to indicate their decision. After that, they answered questions about their background, and did a foreign language comprehension check if they were assigned to a foreign language group. 3) What are the dependent and independent variables?
DV: response to the dilemma (pushing or not pushing the man off the bridge)
IV: language used in the interview

Experiment 2 1) Who are the participants? 725 native/foreign language speakers: 397 Spanish / English, 328 English/Spanish 2) What was the procedure of the experiment?
Participants were interviewed in native or foreign language ambiance and read (with no picture) the footbridge version of the trolley moral dilemma: pushing a man off the bridge to stop a coming train so as to save five people or not, and the