Abstract

Abstract

Keysar et al. (2012) and A. Costa et al. (2014) found that thinking in a foreign language could help the speakers to reduce the framing effect and select risky prospects in a more consistent manner. In order to understand the relationships between the risk preferences, consistency in decision-making and language used, an experiment was carried out in form of online surveys. The surveys were distributed to the Vietnamese, Chinese and French bilinguals as well as a group of English natives through The College of Wooster’s e-mail, social media and Amazon M-Turk. Participants (N = 177) were assigned to use either their mother tongue or foreign language to answered either the gain-framed or loss-framed Asian Disease problem. All participants also completed the Holt-Laury’s Ten-Paired-Lottery problem. The data were analyzed by SPSS two-variable Chi-Square and logit regression. The results did not find consistent evidence supporting the effect of foreign-language on the framing effect and risk preferences over all as hypothesized. However, the foreign languages with high linguistic distance were likely to induce framing-effect-reduction and make the decisions more consistent.

Advisor

Thompson, Claudia

Second Advisor

Mellizo, Philip

Department

International Relations; Psychology

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

langugage, risk

Publication Date

2015

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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© Copyright 2015 Dang Khoa Ngoc Dao