LAUSR

Abstract Research findings on whether or not using a foreign language systematically alters people’s decisions by mitigating framing effects, are inconclusive. The bulk of previous research suggests that our decisions are affected by the language they are made in. A more recent study however indicates that this phenomenon might be related to an unexpected switch of language prior to a decision rather than to the use of a foreign language as such. In order to advance the current state of knowledge, the present study assessed the decision preferences of 200 participants. Half of them were subjected to a switch of language right before answering the “Asian disease problem”, the other half was not. A novel feature compared to previous research was to include cognitive measures in our design in order to capture the participants’ language and task switching abilities. In line with the existent literature, where framing was shown to reliably affect people’s decision patterns, our regression analysis suggested a significant main effect of type of frame on the participants’ decision tendencies. Similarly, language of initial instruction appeared to be a significant predictor of the participants’ choices. An unexpected switch of language and the participants’ switching abilities on the other hand could not be corroborated as predictor variables.