A closer look at “Balanced bilinguals feel emotions more intensely in both languages, study finds”, exactly as the source publishes it. A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that people fluent in two languages may experience emotions differently than monolinguals. Researchers found that saying an emotional word like “angry” out loud typically reduces activity in emotional brain regions for monolinguals, but this effect disappears for balanced bilinguals—those equally proficient in both languages. The study suggests that for bilinguals, emotional words retain their intensity regardless of language, potentially because both languages are deeply integrated in the brain.
This could mean bilinguals have less automatic emotional regulation when using language to label feelings. The findings have implications for mental health therapy, where language choice might matter less for balanced bilinguals. Understanding how language shapes emotion can improve cross-cultural communication and emotional support strategies. This listing links straight to the original page, where the content is available in full.