Moral identity and language jointly influence how bilinguals feel and decide

Abstract

This preregistered study investigated how moral identity relates to moral decisions and emotional responses in 106 Greek–English bilinguals. Participants evaluated two sacrificial-harm and two honesty-based interpersonal moral dilemmas and completed the Moral Identity Questionnaire (Black & Reynolds, 2016, Personality and Individual Differences , 97, 120–129). Analyses combined NHST and Bayesian approaches. Higher moral self and moral integrity scores predicted stronger emotional reactions and more deontological choices, particularly in honesty-based dilemmas. Language did not exert a reliable overall effect on moral decisions. However, participants responding in their first language (L1) reported higher moral self scores than those responding in their second language (L2), whereas moral integrity did not differ across language conditions. Emotional intensity varied by language and dilemma type: participants generally reported stronger emotions in their L2 but experienced stronger emotional intensity in response to sacrificial dilemmas in their L1. A multilevel mediation analysis indicated that emotional intensity did not reliably mediate the relationship between language and moral choices.