Foreign to whom? Constraining the moral foreign language effect on bilinguals’ language experience

Abstract The moral foreign language effect (MFLE) describes how people’s decisions may change when a dilemma is presented in either their native (NL) or (FL). Growing attention being directed to unpacking what aspects of bilingualism influence the MFLE, though with mixed inconclusive results. current study aims bridge this gap by adopting conceptualization that frames construct as composite and continuous measure. In between-group analysis, we asked 196 Italian–English bilinguals perform dilemmas task NL (i.e., Italian) FL English). within-group evaluated effects age acquisition, proficiency, dominance – all measured variables on decision-making. Overall, findings indicate differences within bilinguals’ experience impact an FL. However, linguistic factors considered was not ubiquitous across dilemmas, always emerged into MFLE. light these results, our addresses importance treating multidimensional, rather than unitary variable. It also discusses need reconceptualize FLE its implications