Using a Foreign Language Affects Your Ethical Reasoning


(Photo: Elliott Brown)

You're standing on a footbridge overlooking a train track. A train is coming down that track. It is about to hit and kill five people.

A very heavy man is also on the bridge. If you push him off the bridge, his body will stop the train, but it will also kill him.

Would you push him?

How you answer this ethical dilemma may be affected by the language in which you hear it. Researchers at the University of Chicago and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona found that when people encountered this dilemma in a foriegn language, they were more likely to take the utilitarian option: pushing the man off the footbridge. Science 2.0 reports:

The researchers collected data from people in the U.S., Spain, Korea, France and Israel. Across all populations, more participants selected the utilitarian choice — to save five by killing one — when the dilemmas were presented in the foreign language than when they did the problem in their native tongue.

Even with randomizing the participants' language groups, "those using a foreign language were twice as likely to respond with the utilitarian approach that is more in the service of the common good of saving more people," said lead author Albert Costa from the Center of Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. Costa is currently a visiting professor at the University of Chicago.

-via Marilyn Terrell

Would you push him?




Comments (2)

Newest 2
Newest 2 Comments

How can I push a man so heavy he can stop a train? How would people on the train survive such sudden stop? This scenario is horribly bad to base research on.

No I would not kill an innocent bystander to save five unknown derps from Darwin. Don't walk on the tracks!
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It's an early gyroscope for boats. The little doodad in the middle is a level. If the bubble is on the right, everybody lean right. If the bubble is on the left, everybody lean left.

I Heart Science, Black, XL
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It's the only piece left after the famous burning of the libraries in Alexandria. It's a shelf bracket that was in a maintenance man's hand as he ran out of the building.

I Heart Science, Black, XL
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It's a caliper used in Roman times as they were practicing their famous shield-to-shield phalanx formation. The officers would measure the distance between each head using this tool.

I Heart Science, Black, XL
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It's a section of track from an old Hot Wheels Monorail set. Mattel quickly discontinued that product line as kids never really grasped the value of mass transit.

et tailwhip,xl
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It was a tool used to measure the "Angle of the Dangle". But it was rendered obsolete when it was discovered that the "Motion of the Ocean" was a more important unit of measure.

Dick and Bruce, Silver, 2XL
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Its a boomerang for an OCD Australian, or anyone else that uses a boomerang and has OCD, because even their throws have to be perfect and level.

When Worlds Collide, L
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The first Hotwheels ramp released in 1895. It includes a futuristic hovering horseless carriage from the year 2000. It was not popular upon release because it was too ahead of it's time.

Uncle Venkman, L
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This is a quality of life graphing instrument. One places the bubble at the top indicating ones current time. Then the bubble is released and its final location determines if ones quality of life increases or decreases over time.

Obey Gravity L
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This custom leveling unit is used by big bankers and other one-percenters to make certain they retain the advantage of an unlevel playing field.

[ Offworld Colonies, Black, XL ]
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Bear with me here. You know those ramps they have at the bowling alley for kids and others who can't heft a bowling ball? Well, same thing here, but for people who can't use a cue stick on a pool table.
Okay, it may not be all that funny but I could be on to something here....

et tailwhip,xl
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This is an old 1920s-era zoetrope type of device. When you look through the eyepiece and slide it along the track, you see a nice young flapper woman doing something just unthinkable. Geez, what was the world coming to?

et tailwhip,xl
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An early prototype of a future self propelled boomerang that ran on kinetic energy. Just vigorously run the slider on the track and then be amazed!

Another Castle, Navy xlg
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