Tópico: Pensamento mágico e idiomas

[Gigaview]

Superstition is everywhere in our modern lives. Each Friday the 13th, nearly a billion dollars in business is avoided because people are afraid that it will be bad luck to do it that day. In the United Kingdom, traffic accidents increase dramatically on the same day, despite less traffic overall. Even for those of us who consider ourselves rational people, the effects of superstition can still hinder us. We know we have nothing to fear, but fear it anyway.

A new study shows us a way to bypass that part of our mind that worries about black cats and broken mirrors: speak in another language.

In one part of the study, Italian volunteers who were proficient in the German or English languages were asked to read about an event associated with bad luck, such as a breaking a mirror or walking under a ladder. They were then asked to rate how the event in the story made them feel, and how strongly it affected them.

While the scenario invoked negative feelings in nearly all of the subjects, the ones who read it in a foreign language noted a reduced level of negative feeling compared to those who read it in their native tongue.

The study was repeated with other languages to see if the effect also existed for events with a positive connotation, such as finding a four-leaf clover. Similar results were found, with the same reduction in the intensity of mood changes for those who read it in a foreign language. The effect held for all demographics studied, and the authors took steps to assure the readers would not misunderstand the texts and give false positives.

This study suggests that tendencies to “magical thinking” can be reduced by presenting and processing information in a second language. While it does not remove these tendencies, as the subjects still showed both positive and negative responses to certain phenomena, it was starkly reduced in every case. It supports the findings of previous studies that suggest memories are partly tied to the language they are made in, and adds evidence to the hypothesis that the part of the brain that processes information in a second language is more rational than the part that works in our native language.

Weird. What else happens to me if I do my thinking in a foreign language?

The authors of this study point out that other research has shown that people will make different choices when speaking a second language than when speaking in their native tongue. They are more willing to sacrifice a stranger to save five other people, will spend more time discussing embarrassing topics, are more tolerant of harmful behaviors, and more permissive of helpful behavior that has dubious motives. In all, they are more rational.

But, why would the choice of language have such an effect on behavior?

The authors of the study suggest that the part of our brains that processes our native language is more intuitive and less rational than the parts that focus on new languages. This idea, that our linguistic choices can have such an effect on our rationality, can be a little off-putting for those of us who like to suppose ourselves as rational people.

So, what can I do with this information?

The findings could have implications for language study and the neuroscience of how our brains process language. It might also be used to advantage in diplomacy and business, with negotiators selecting a language that will most benefit their rationality. It also means that next time you see a black cat crossing your path, you might do better to disregard it in a second language than try to shrug it off in your first.

http://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/thinking-in-a-foreign-language-reduces-superstitious-belief-says-new-study

[Gigaview]

Breaking Magic: Foreign Language Suppresses Superstition
Constantinos Hadjichristidis, Janet Geipel & Luca Surian

Abstract

In three studies we found that reading information in a foreign language can suppress common superstitious beliefs. Participants read scenarios either in their native or a foreign language. In each scenario, participants were asked to imagine performing an action (e.g., submitting a job application) under a superstitious circumstance (e.g., broken mirror; four-leaf clover) and to rate how they would feel. Overall, foreign language prompted less negative feelings towards bad-luck scenarios, less positive feelings towards good-luck scenarios, while it exerted no influence on non-superstitious, control scenarios. We attribute these findings to language-dependent memory. Superstitious beliefs are typically acquired and used in contexts involving the native language. As a result, the native language evokes them more forcefully than a foreign language.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17470218.2017.1371780

[Fernando Silva]

É como se você estivesse longe da família e dos amigos e se sentisse mais à vontade para fazer certas coisas.

[Eremita]

O estudo sugere que pode-se reduzir as tendências ao "pensamento mágico" apresentando e processando a informação noutro idioma.

Não acho que a causa seja a língua na qual a informação é apresentada e processada, se nativa ou L2. Acho que a causa é mais profunda - as associações que o falante faz com cada um desses idiomas gerando atitudes diferentes em relação à informação.

Por exemplo. O dia-a-dia dum falante nativo de italiano girará em torno da língua italiana: contar piada em italiano, falar da parmigiana da vó em italiano, xingar o cachorro em italiano... ele vai associar a língua italiana com todas essas coisinhas do dia-a-dia, que incluem as superstições e o "pensamento mágico".

Daí se esse mesmo sujeito aprende alemão, usará (e portanto associará) o alemão com contextos muito específicos, como o trabalho ou leitura de filosofia. Ou mesmo com a interação com desconhecidos em ambientes formais. Tais situações exigem muito mais racionalidade do que o dia-a-dia; portanto, o sujeito associará o alemão com uma mentalidade mais racional, e isso o fará interpretar a info de forma diferente.

Se essa minha hipótese estiver correta, o aumento ou a redução do "pensamento mágico" dependerá dos motivos pelos quais aprendeu-se e fala-se a L2.

[Gigaview]

Concordo com o Eremita. A melhor explicação é a racionalidade e talvez aquele que domina pouco o idioma (que exige mais esforço lógico/racional para se expressar) é o que consegue tirar melhor proveito desse tipo de bypass apontado no texto.