Second Language Use Facilitates Implicit Emotion Regulation via Content Labeling

Abstract

Previous studies reported that negative stimuli induced less affect in bilinguals when stimuli were presented in bilinguals' second, weaker language (L2) than when they were presented in their native language (L1). This effect of L2 use was attributed to increased emotional distance as well as to increased levels of cognitive control during L2 use. Here we investigated how explicit (cognitive reappraisal, i.e., reinterpreting the meaning of the emotional stimulus to alter its emotional impact) and implicit (content labeling, i.e., categorizing the content of the image; and emotion labeling, i.e., naming the emotion induced by the emotional stimulus) emotion regulation strategies are altered in an L2 (English) context in German native speakers with medium to high proficiency in their L2. While previous studies used linguistic stimuli, such as words, to induce affect, here we used images to test whether reduced affect could also be observed for non-linguistic stimuli when presented in an L2 context. We hypothesized that the previously implicated increase in emotional distance and cognitive control in an L2 would result in an L2 advantage in emotion regulation (i.e., leading to less negative emotions compared to an L1 context), by strengthening the effect of linguistic re-evaluation on the evoked emotions. Using a classic emotion regulation paradigm, we examined changes in subjective emotional state ratings during reappraisal, emotion labeling and content labeling in a L1 and L2 context. We found that the strength of evoked affective responses did not depend on the language context in which an image was presented. Crucially, content labeling in L2 was more effective than in L1, whereas emotion labeling did not differ between languages. Overall, evoked responses were regulated most effectively through explicit emotion regulation (reappraisal) in L1 and L2 context. These results demonstrate an L2 advantage effect for emotion regulation through content labeling and suggest that L2 context alters sub-processes implicated in content labeling but not emotion labeling.

Keywords: L2 advantage; content labeling; emotion regulation; emotional distance; reappraisal.

FIGURE 1

Trial design for (A) Decrease, (B) Maintain, (C) Label Emotion, and (D) Label Content conditions. Only the English version of the task is illustrated.

FIGURE 2

Mean difference in affect ratings between emotion regulation conditions and maintain condition in first (L1) and second (L2) language. Error bars indicate standard error for the comparison to the maintain condition of the respective language. **p < 0.01.

FIGURE 3

Magnitude of emotion regulation success through reappraisal (Decrease condition), distraction (Label content), and emotion labeling, in comparison to the look condition in the respective languages. High values indicate more effective emotion regulation. Error bars represent standard errors for the simple effects of emotion regulation success in each condition. **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05, ^∙p < 0.1.