The role of culture and language in moral decision-making

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of cultural and language factors in moral decision-making in Hindi-English bilinguals in comparison with English monolinguals living in Australia. The study included 166 Hindi-English bilingual participants who completed the survey in either their first or second language, and a comparison group of 127 English monolingual participants. Participants were presented with six hypothetical moral dilemmas (original trolley/footbridge), Water-park (impersonal/personal), Family Game Show (impersonal/personal) requiring them to either save the lives or winnings of five people by sacrificing the lives or winnings of one person or not and to make moral judgments about these decisions. A cultural effect was found in moral decision-making as individuals from a Western background were more likely to engage in utilitarian decision-making, and rate it as more appropriate, than those from an Indian background to the monetary-loss Waterpark and Family Game Show dilemmas. In addition, similarities were found in decision-making choices to the trolley and footbridge dilemmas in the two cultural groups. Overall, no significant foreign language effect was found in the Hindi-Eng-lish bilinguals. The foreign language effect may not extend to more proficient second language learners or acculturated bilingual speakers. Keywords Cultural effects · Dilemmas · Foreign language effect · Hindi-English bilinguals · Moral decision-making In today's shrinking global world, people from diverse cultural and language backgrounds communicate, socially interact and work cooperatively together using either their native language or a second or even third language. This is particularly pertinent in multicultural societies such as Australia where people come from diverse cultural backgrounds and one in five of the population speaks a language other than English at home (ABS 2013). This highlights the importance of gaining greater