This self-report study investigates how 1368 participants perceived the intensity level of a British female’s emotional experience. Overall, audiovisual stimuli yielded higher intensity ratings than audio-only stimuli. More surprisingly, L1 participants’ intensity ratings were lower than LX participants’ ratings. Moreover, proficiency was negatively correlated with intensity ratings.
Research into multilinguals’ emotionality has produced mixed findings, both in laboratory settings (e.g. Harris 2004, Eilola & Havelka 2011) and via self-report designs (e.g. Dewaele 2013, Resnik 2018). Although many studies reveal reduced emotionality in a LX compared to a L1 – and even more so at lower proficiency levels (e.g. Harris et al 2006), others present a more nuanced picture (e.g. Dewaele 2008). Contrary to the bulk of research so far, which has focused on multilinguals’ own emotion experience and emotion processing, this study investigates how one perceives the intensity level of someone else’s emotional experience. Data were collected via an online survey embedded with six stimuli. Depending on the condition they were assigned to, 1368 participants rated the intensity of the emotional experience of a British-English-speaking female enacting different emotional events in either six audiovisual clips or six audio-only clips. Overall, audiovisual stimuli yielded higher intensity ratings than audio-only stimuli. More surprisingly, L1 participants’ intensity ratings were lower than LX participants’ ratings. Moreover, proficiency was negatively correlated with intensity ratings. At first sight, this study challenges the detachment effect. However, as proposed by Dewaele and Moxsom-Turnbull (2019), we speculate that these findings could result from the fact that LX users might be more aware of the detachment effect than previously assumed. Thus, in order to compensate for their (conscious) lack of emotionality in a LX, they would report higher intensity levels than what they actually perceived. However, in doing so, they would overcompensate, leading to even higher ratings than L1 users.
