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Emotion regulation by attentional deployment moderates bilinguals’ language-dependent emotion differences

ABSTRACT Unbalanced bilinguals react differently to emotional stimuli in their first (L1) and second (L2) language. However, the size and direction of the emotion difference varies across emotions and tasks, so that its causes are controversial. Therefore, we investigated if the attentional resources bilinguals allocate to emotion processing moderate their language-dependent emotions. In two experiments, we crossed language and emotion regulation. Study 1 compared effects of distraction and concentration on bilingual emotion-word valence ratings. Study 2 induced positive emotion-focused rumination (or not) prior to a simulated, video-based online-dating activity. It measured emotional attraction to dating candidates speaking the participant’s L1 or L2 in pupillary, eye-fixation and self-report responses. The studies found reduced L2 emotions when emotion processing was distracted or when its level was low to start with. Yet, if bilinguals concentrated or had ruminated on their emotions, their self-reported and physiological emotionality was comparable or even stronger in L2, relative to L1. The findings suggest that bilinguals’ language-dependent emotions vary with differential language-processing automaticity. We propose that the observed emotion-regulation moderation generates further testable predictions about where and when language choice is relevant for bilinguals’ emotions.