Foreign language effect on the judgment of bullshit

Abstract

The present study investigates the cognitive processing of nonsense, namely bullshit statements, in the context of the foreign language effect (FLE). We aimed to investigate if there is an FLE on the profundity assessment (PA) of bullshit statements and whether it could be attributed to emotional valence (EV)? Two pilot studies were conducted to create the necessary materials for the experiment. In the first study, we created a database of words in English and Serbian and collected lexical norms to control and manipulate the statement properties. Using the word database and the custom-made software, we created 480 bullshit and everyday statements, which were then evaluated by EV and imageability in the second study. The English statements were rated as more imaginable than their Serbian equivalents (F (1, 71) = 59.111, p<.01, η2 = .055). In the main studies (N1=96; N2=95), participants rated the statements by profundity. Results suggest that there is no FLE on the PA of bullshit when the evaluators are highly proficient in their L2, but in the less proficient participants, a FLE was found (F (1, 94) = 4.917, p<.05, η2 = .004). The FLE on the PA of bullshit was affected by EV (F (2, 94) = 3.462, p<.05, η2 = .002).