Deciding in another language: what bilingualism does not guarantee
In a bilingual organisation, choosing the language of a briefing may seem a matter of coordination rather than decision-making. The managerial question is more specific: can presenting the same situation in a first or a learned language change the choice?
What the literature establishes
Boaz Keysar, Sayuri Hayakawa and Sun Gyu An (2012, Psychological Science) observed in their experiments that certain decision biases were attenuated when participants reasoned in a foreign language rather than their first language. Their findings concern, in particular, sensitivity to how risks are presented and loss aversion. They establish that language can influence a choice, not that a foreign language improves every decision.
Distance can also shift moral judgement
Albert Costa, Alice Foucart, Sayuri Hayakawa, Melina Aparici, José Apesteguia, Joy Heafner and Boaz Keysar (2014, PLOS ONE) studied moral dilemmas presented in a first or foreign language. In the footbridge dilemma, participants using a foreign language were more willing to sacrifice one person to save several others. Reduced emotional resonance is one possible explanation, but this result alone does not establish the mechanism.
The premature conclusion
One might infer that deliberating in a foreign language makes people more rational. That conclusion confuses a change in responses with a demonstrated improvement in their quality. When weighing safety, working conditions or commitments to a supplier, emotional distance is not, in itself, a criterion for a good decision. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What these experiments do not reproduce
These studies examine experimental tasks, not operational decisions made by bilingual teams. A learned foreign language is not necessarily equivalent to a language used daily and mastered as well as one's first language. In practice, translation, technical vocabulary and confidence in challenging a proposal may also shape the discussion: the cited findings do not isolate their contribution in a Fribourg company.
A practical check in Fribourg
As part of SHR's decision-making programme, an exercise could bring together managers from the agri-food sector, bilingual industry and Fribourg's university community to assess the same fictional supplier-selection case, available in French and German after the versions have been checked for equivalence. Before any discussion, participants able to work in both languages would randomly receive one version and record their choice, their decisive criterion and an answer to a comprehension question, while indicating their first language and proficiency in the assigned language. The measure would be the proportion recommending each option by language version, reported alongside participant counts and the rate of correct answers to the comprehension question. A difference would be a signal to investigate and retest, not proof that one language produces better decisions. To go further: explore the Decision-making training in Fribourg, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Decision-making in Fribourg
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