Pussy power

Abstract

Some previous research has suggested that words in multlinguals’ first language, particularly taboo words, evoke a greater emotional response than words in any subsequent language. In the present study, we elicited French-English bilinguals’ emotional responses to words in both languages. We expected taboo words to evoke higher emotional response than positive or negative words in both languages. We tested the hypothesis that the earlier that bilinguals had acquired the language, the higher the emotional responses. French-English bilinguals with long exposure to both French and English participated. Their galvanic skin response (GSR) was measured as they processed positive (e.g., mother), negative (e.g., war) and taboo (e.g., pussy) words in both French and English. As predicted, GSR responses to taboo words were high in both languages. Surprisingly, English taboo words elicited higher GSR responses than French ones and age of acquisition was not related to GSR. We argue that these results are related to the context in which this study took place (i.e., an English majority context). If this interpretation is correct, then bilinguals’ emotional response to words could be more strongly linked to recent emotional interactions than to childhood experiences.