ABSTRACT
Recent studies have shown that people make more utilitarian decisions when they are faced with a moral dilemma in a foreign language than in their native language. The origin of this Foreign Language effect is still not clear but recent neurocognitive research methodologies and experimental paradigms have provided some answers. This chapter reviews these studies and discusses their implications for the neurocognition of second language learning. More specifically, the chapter first describes the Foreign Language effect and its (potential) origin, then it reviews behavioral and neurophysiological studies that have examined the factors underlying it, and finally it proposes future directions and further readings.
