Major and Classification
Psychology
Faculty Mentor
Jason Zevin, Ph.D., Department of Psychology
Department
Dornsife: Psychology
Research Gateway Project
“Bilingualism and Morality in Children”
Project Abstract
Research on bilinguals has shown that there is a difference in personalities, emotions, and morality. Various studies have utilized the trolley dilemma, posing the question would you sacrifice one to save five? Looking at decision making for bilinguals when stimuli is presented in either language, this study aims to discover if bilinguals are more morally inclined in Spanish or in English. The study also see’s personality change in individuals given the context of language and works to fine tune the view of morality, moving it from a universal yardstick to a culturally inherited lens. Through the use of questionnaires and vignettes this study will measure the variety of views people have based on language and will then asses how moral wrongness is defined in other cultures. This study will concentrate on the Latino community of South Central Los Angeles.