It may be intuitive that people would make the same choices regardless of the language they are using, or that the difficulty of using a foreign language would make decisions less systematic.
Researchers from Chicago University discovered, however, that the opposite is true: Using a foreign language reduces decision-making biases.
In four experiments they showed that the framing effect disappears when choices are presented in a foreign tongue. Whereas people were risk averse to gains and risk-seeking for losses when options were presented in their native tongue, they were not influenced by this framing manipulation in a foreign language.
Two additional experiments have shown that using a foreign language reduces loss aversion, increasing the acceptance of hypothetical and real bets with a positive expected value. These effects arise because a foreign language provides greater cognitive and emotional distance than a native tongue.
A recent Cursus article also mentions other benefits of learning a new language. It keeps your brain in shape, reduces Alzheimer and slows brain aging brain, just to mention a few of them.
Foreign language knowledge looks better in your curriculum vitae (CV) and can boost your career.
