Neural markers reveal weakened sensitivity to moral violations in a foreign language

While previous bilingualism research has consistently demonstrated that moral decision-making is modulated by the language of operation, it remains unclear how bilinguals process morally charged linguistic content when explicit moral evaluation is not required. In the present event-related potential study, Polish-English bilinguals performed a semantic decision task involving native (L1) and foreign (L2) sentences that either conformed to or violated moral norms. The results showed reduced N400 amplitudes for moral violations in L2 relative to L1, pointing to a shallower processing of morality in L2. This suggests that bilinguals show decreased sensitivity to immoral acts when operating in L2. Overall, the present study deepens our understanding of how the language of operation influences morality processing in bilinguals.