Are our preferences and evaluations conditioned by the language context?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Our preferences and evaluations are often affected by contextual factors. One unavoidable context is language. We used an evaluative conditioning (EC) paradigm (pairing neutral stimuli with emotional or neutral stimuli) to investigate whether our evaluations are equally conditioned in a first (L1) and a second language (L2). An EC effect was observed in both languages, however, if in L1 it occurred independently of recollection of the pairing of the stimuli, in second language memory seemed to play a larger role. These results were confirmed using a more implicit measure (memory confusion paradigm). Overall, the results suggest that conditioning occurs both in L1 and L2 but is weaker and more sensitive to memory of the emotional stimuli in L2. The study is the first demonstration that EC is modulated by language and converges with recent findings showing that linguistic context can modulate our behaviours.