Decision-Making in Foreign Language Reduces Emotional Arousal

The study of bilingual’s qualities suggests that their decision-making process might differ in both languages. A recent research by Keysar, Hayakawa & An (2012) investigated the phenomenon of reduction in emotional reactivity in the second language on decision-making process, especially amongst bilinguals who acquired their second language later in life, often in a more formal setting (Pavlenko, 2005). This research intended to show a more convincing argument regarding this phenomenon by checking the participants ’ physiological arousal during the decision processes, using three physiological measures (Electrocardiogram, Galvanic Skin Response and Electroen-cephalogram). In congruence with the detachment effect theory, our hypothesis is that when bi-linguals think in their foreign language, less emotional reactivity will be shown. The participants (N = 69) are students from Tel-Hai academic college. All of them, native Hebrew speakers who speak English as a foreign language, accomplish a decision-making task (Robert’s apperception test for children 2). All the tasks were performed in both languages, one after the other, while be-ing connected to the physiological measures which measured their arousal in-vivo. In accordance with our hypothesis, a significant difference was found in the task. A significant difference was al