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International Journal of Multilingualism
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Multilingualism, empathy and
multicompetence
Jean-Marc Dewaele
a
& Li Wei
a
a
Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication,
Birkbeck, University of London, 43 Gordon Square, London, WC1H
0PD, UK
Version of record first published: 10 Sep 2012.
To cite this article: Jean-Marc Dewaele & Li Wei (): Multilingualism, empathy and
multicompetence, International Journal of Multilingualism, DOI:10.1080/14790718.2012.714380
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Multilingualism, empathy and multicompetence
Jean-Marc Dewaele* and Li Wei
Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication, Birkbeck, University of London,
43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD, UK
(Received 30 October 2011; final version received 21 May 2012)
The present study investigates the link between multilingualism and the perso-
nality trait of cognitive empathy among 2158 mono- and multilinguals. Data were
collected through an online questionnaire. Statistical analyses revealed that the
knowledge of more languages was not linked to cognitive empathy. Bilingual
upbringing and the experience of having lived abroad were equally unrelated to
cognitive empathy. Gender and education level were linked to cognitive empathy.
Most interestingly, a small but significant positive correlation emerged between
multilingualism (operationalised as advanced levels of proficiency in several
foreign languages and frequent use of these languages) and cognitive empathy.
Further analysis revealed that frequent use of multiple languages was linked to
higher levels of cognitive empathy, which could be interpreted as an indication of
multicompetence.
Keywords: multilingualism; personality; cognitive empathy; levels of proficiency
in several languages
Introduction
The dominant view among personality psychologists is that personality is more
a matter of nature rather than nurture (McCrae et al., 2000; Pervin & Cervone,
2010). Relatively little research has been carried out on the effect of social and
environmental factors on personality traits at an individual level. The default
position of personality psychologists is that participants are largely monolingual
and monocultural, and that the presence of other languages is irrelevant. Pavlenko
(2005, p. 3) notes that this ‘monolingual’ view of language exists in linguistics,
psychology and anthropology.
As researchers of multilingualism, we are keen to find out whether individuals
who are immersed in more than one language and culture would score differently
on certain personality dimensions. The trait we will investigate in the present study
is empathy.
In the following section we will look at the research which considered cross-
cultural and psychological aspects of multilingualism and foreign language acquisi-
tion. We will also focus on some key studies on empathy. We will then present
our research instruments, including the sociobiographical questionnaire and our
adaptation of the Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright (2004) questionnaire to measure
*Corresponding author. Email: j.dewaele@bbk.ac.uk
International Journal of Multilingualism
2012, 115, iFirst article
ISSN 1479-0718 print/ISSN 1747-7530 online
# 2012 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2012.714380
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empathy. We will explain how we adapted the multilingualism measure first
presented in Dewaele and Stavans (2012).
Subsequently, we will test five hypotheses using the data collected from 2158
participants worldwide. The findings will be discussed in the subsequent section.
Finally, we will present some tentative conclusions.
Research on cross-cultural and psychological aspects of multilingualism
Multilingualism research has focused much more on the cognitive consequences
of bi- and multilingualism than on its psychological effects. Bialystok (2010) reported
some delays in bilinguals’ vocabulary acquisition. An overview of the research in
the field, the last 90 years, suggests that bilingualism has no effect on intelligence
but has positive effects on metalinguistic awareness and cognitive development
(Barac & Bialystok, 2011). Research in the last decennium has focused on the effect
of early bilingualism on cognitive abilities known as the executive function. ‘These
are the processes responsible for attention, selection, inhibition, shifting and flexi-
bility that are at the centre of all higher thought’ (p. 37). Adesope, Lavin, Thompson,
and Ungerleider (2010) conducted a large-scale meta-analysis of the literature
on the cognitive effect of bilingualism on children. The results suggest that bilinguals
perform significantly better in abstract and symbolic representation skills, in meta-
linguistic awareness, in attentional control and in working memory. In a recent study,
Bialystok (2010) found that bilingual children outperformed monolinguals on
cognitively demanding tasks but also in less effortful tasks where perceptual
information from complex stimuli had to be processed, but where inhibition was
not needed. Barac and Bialystok (2011) conclude that bilingual advantage ‘is not
limited to inhibitory control but extends to other aspects of executive function such
as monitoring, switching and updating’ (p. 54). Poarch and van Hell (2011) have
pushed this line of investigation further by comparing not just monolingual and
bilingual children but also a group of trilingual children. The authors found that the
trilingual children outperformed the two other groups.
Extensive bilingual experience has positive effects through the lifespan, attenuat-
ing age-related decline in episodic memory (Schroeder & Marian, 2011).
Bilingual cognitive advantages have traditionally been attributed to an indivi-
dual’s knowledge of two linguistic systems. Some researchers have argued that it
is not the bilingualism but rather the biculturalism which gives the cognitive
advantage (Leung, Maddux, Galinsky, & Chiu, 2008).
Bilingualism has also been linked to an advantage in divergent thinking, which
is one of the major components of creativity (Kharkhurin, 2008). The author
attributes this finding to the fact that multilingual/multicultural experience allows
individuals to perceive the world through the amalgam of two different conceptual
prisms and view events with a wider range of enriched experiences. Kharkhurin
(2010) investigated the effect of bilingualism on verbal and nonverbal criterion-
referenced creativity indicators of the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults among
college students, controlling linguistic proficiency and language dominance. Bilin-
guals were found to perform better on nonverbal creativity, whereas monolinguals
scored higher on verbal creativity. The bilinguals outperformed their monolingual
peers on an important indicator of creativity namely resistance to premature closure.
In other words, they did not jump to conclusions prematurely.
1
2 J.M. Dewaele and L. Wei
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One consistent pattern that emerges from research on foreign language anxiety
(FLA), both in classroom situations and in multilingual interactions in daily life,
is that participants knowing more languages suffer less from FLA in their vari-
ous languages (Dewaele, 2007, 2010a; Dewaele, Petrides, & Furnham, 2008). FLA
has also been found to be lower in the target language if the learner already masters
a language belonging to the same family (for example, the knowledge of other
Romance languages was linked to lower FLA in French; Dewaele, 2010b). It
was suggested that multilinguals are more experienced communicators, able to over-
come communicative difficulties, and that their increased communicative confidence
translates in lower levels of FLA (Dewaele et al., 2008).
A considerable body of research exists in cross-cultural psychology on the
personality traits associated with positive outcomes of immigration (Kim, 2001).
Immigrants who are prepared for change and have an adaptive personality,
characterised by Openness, strength and positivity, are more likely to be successful
in cross-cultural adaptation (p. 85).
The study by Chen, Benet-Martı´nez, and Harris Bond (2008) found that
Neuroticism was the strongest predictor of psychological adjustment of three groups
of immigrants in Hong Kong. Balanced bicultural individuals (measured with the
Bicultural Identity Integration scale) have been found to score higher on Openness
to experience and lower on Neuroticism (Benet-Martı´nez & Haritatos, 2005).
Leong (2007) found that Singaporean students who had opted for an international
exchange programme scored higher on Openmindedness, Social Initiative, Flexibility
and Emotional Stability compared to a control group who had chosen to remain in
Singapore (p. 553). The exchange students who scored higher on Social Initiative
experienced fewer cultural and psychological difficulties during their stay abroad,
while those who scored high on Flexibility suffered more from depression. Peltokorpi
and Froese (2011) also found that western expatriates working in the greater Tokyo
who scored higher on Openmindedness, Emotional Stability, Cultural Empathy and
Social Initiative were more likely to have psychologically adjusted in Japan.
Dewaele and Van Oudenhoven (2009) reported that young London teenagers
who had been born abroad scored significantly higher than locally-born teenagers
on the dimensions of Openmindedness and marginally on Cultural Empathy,
and they scored significantly lower on Emotional Stability. Participants knowing
and using at least two languages scored significantly higher on the dimensions
of Cultural Empathy and Openmindedness, and scored significantly lower on the
dimension of Emotional Stability compared to mere incipient bilinguals, that is,
classroom learners of a second language.
Dewaele and Stavans (2012) partially replicated the Dewaele and Van Oudenhoven
study with participants residing in Israel. One crucial difference was that the
participants were all proficient in at least two languages. It turned out that
those knowing more languages (three to six) did not obtain different scores on the
personality dimensions. Participants born in Israel scored marginally higher on
Emotional Stability compared to those born abroad, and participants with one
immigrant parent (but not two) scored higher on Cultural Empathy, Openmindedness
and Social Initiative. Participants who had become dominant in Hebrew (either L2,
L3 or L4) scored lower than L1-dominant participants on Emotional Stability.
High levels of multilingualism (i.e. advanced knowledge and frequent use of
various languages) were linked to significantly higher scores on Cultural Empathy,
International Journal of Multilingualism 3
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Openmindedness and Social Initiative. Korzilius, Van Hooft, Planken, and Hendrix
(2011) study on the adjustment of international employees of a Dutch multinational
company found that foreign language knowledge was linked to significantly higher
scores on Openmindedness and Emotional Stability. A positive relationship was
also found between self-assessed knowledge of foreign languages and Cultural
Empathy (p. 546). The international employees (who were more multilingual) scored
higher on Openmindedness and Flexibility than the Dutch employees working in
The Netherlands. Non-international employees scored highest on Emotional stability
(p. 549).
Oz
˙
an´ska-Ponikwia and Dewaele (2012) looked at the link between
personality traits and frequency of use of English L2 as well as self-perceived
proficiency in English L2 by adult Polish immigrants living in Ireland and the
UK. Statistical analyses revealed that Openness and Self-esteem were significant
predictors of frequency of use of English L2, while Openness was the best predictor
of self-perceived English L2 proficiency. It thus seems that progress in the L2
depends not just on the immersion in the L2 but also on the L2 user’s personality
profile resulting in fewer or more social interactions in the L2.
Finally, in a mirror study to the present one (Dewaele & Wei, in press), we used
the feedback, obtained through an online questionnaire in English, from 2158
multilinguals from around the world to investigate the link between multilingualism
and the measure of Tolerance of Ambiguity (TA), a lower-order personality trait
(Herman, Stevens, Bird, Mendenhall, & Oddou, 2010). A significant positive link
emerged between the number of languages known to participants and their TA
scores. A high level of global proficiency in various languages was linked also to
higher TA scores. While growing up bi- or trilingually from birth had no effect on
TA, the experience of having lived abroad had a strong positive impact although the
effect levelled off after more than one year abroad. TA thus appears to be influenced
by an individual’s social-linguistic-cultural environment and by that individual’s
conscious effort to learn new languages and having to fit in a new linguistic and
cultural environment. The same study showed no relationship between the number of
languages known by participants and their scores on Neuroticism (Dewaele & Wei,
in press).
Research on empathy
Empathy refers to the ability ‘to tune into how someone else is feeling, or what
they might be thinking’ (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004, p. 193). Empathy
plays a crucial role in social interactions as it allows us ‘to understand the intentions
of others, predict their behaviour, and experience an emotion triggered by their
emotion’ (p. 193). The authors refer to empathy as ‘the ‘‘glue’’ of the social world,
drawing us to help others and stopping us from hurting others’ (p. 193). Empathy
is difficult to define because of its multidimensional nature. It has been conceptua-
lised by social psychologists as having two main strands: ‘(1) cognitive empathy
‘‘the intellectual/imaginative apprehension of another’s mental state’’ and (2)
emotional empathy ‘‘an emotional response to ... emotional responses of
others’’’ (Lawrence, Shaw, Baker, Baron-Cohen, & David, 2004, p. 911). Multiple
questionnaires have been developed to measure empathy but Baron-Cohen and
Wheelwright (2004, pp. 165, 166) claim that many instruments measured various
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aspects, such as social skills, social self-confidence, even-temperedness, sensitivity,
nonconformity, fantasy and so on.
Empathy has also been mentioned as a psychological variable that might be
relevant in second or foreign language acquisition. Guiora et al. (1975, p. 48) suggest
that empathy is essential to success in the second language learning: ‘To speak a
second language authentically is to take on a new identity. As with empathy, it is to
step into a new and perhaps unfamiliar pair of shoes’.
Second language learners with high levels of empathy have been found to be
better at imitating a native speaker’s pronunciation (Guiora, Beit-Hallahmi,
Brannon, Dull, & Scovel, 1972; Guiora, Brannon, & Dull, 1972). Guiora (1990)
claims that pronunciation ability and empathy are influenced by the permeability of
ego boundaries, constituting the so-called ‘language ego’. Permeability (or mental
flexibility) refers to the ease with which new experiences, cultural features or
perceptions of other people may pass the defences of one’s personality. People with
low levels of ego permeability are more defensive and less receptive to outside
influences. Higher levels of ego permeability imply lower defensiveness and higher
receptivity. Guiora claimed that children learn their L1 in a state of ego permeability,
but that this permeability decreases progressively with age. According to Guiora and
coworkers (1972) ego permeability strengthens individuals’ sensitivity to social
interaction and allows individuals to pick up subtle speech nuances and to learn
to reproduce them. Some research has been carried out to see whether ego
boundaries, that is, subjective inhibitions, can be weakened through consumption
of alcohol or Valium (Guiora, Acton, Erard, & Strickland, 1980; Guiora, Beit-
Hallahmi, et al., 1972). Baran-Lucarz (2012) investigated the link between types of
ego boundaries and accuracy in L2 pronunciation. She found few relationships but a
weak positive correlation ermerged between pronunciation scores and a boundary
representing ‘‘the subjects’ attitudes towards accepting objects, concepts and
situations that lack clear borders’’ (p. 60).
Rota and Reiterer (2009) have investigated the link between empathy and
pronunciation (using the Modern Language Aptitude Test [MLAT]). The authors
used a scale developed by Leibetseder, Laireiter, Riepler, and Ko
¨
ller (2001). Empathy
was defined ‘as the effort to identify with persons in fictitious or real-life situations’
(Rota & Reiterer, 2009, p. 71). The questionnaire consists of 26 items grouped into
four factors: ‘cognitive-sensitivity, emotional sensitivity, emotional and cognitive
concern’ (p. 71). Empathic readiness scores were found to correlate positively and
significantly with talent of pronunciation, phonetic coding ability, grammatical
sensitivity and vocabulary learning (p. 72). Further research by these researchers,
using fMRI imaging, has shown that imitation aptitude for an unknown language
(Hindi) is mostly predicted by working memory, whereas imitation aptitude in
advanced L2 is best predicted by empathy and phonetic coding ability (Reiterer,
2011). Empathy was also found to predict L2 pronunciation aptitude among
advanced learners of English L2 (Hu et al., 2012).
Oz
˙
an´ska-Ponikwia and Dewaele (2012) found that self-perceived English
L2 proficiency scores of Polish immigrants in Ireland and the UK correlated
positively, and significantly, with three personality traits: Agreeableness, Openness
and Empathy (but not Extraversion). The authors speculate that curiosity in the
L2 and an ability to perceive an interlocutor’s point of view have a stronger
effect on self-perceived proficiency than gregariousness and talkativeness facets of
Extraversion.
International Journal of Multilingualism 5
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Research questions and hypotheses
The present study will address the following questions:
(1) Is the knowledge of more languages linked to higher levels of empathy?
We expect participants knowing more languages to score higher on empathy.
(2) Is the degree of multilingualism linked to higher levels of empathy? We
expect participants having advanced knowledge of languages and using them
frequently to score higher on empathy.
(3) Does growing up bilingually affect empathy? We hypothesise that partici-
pants who grew up bi- or trilingually will score higher on empathy.
(4) Does living abroad affect empathy? If that is the case, do those who have
stayed abroad longer score higher on empathy? Our expectation is that
participants who have lived outside their homeland for some time will score
higher on empathy.
(5) Is there an effect of age, gender and education level on empathy? We expect
that older, female and more highly educated participants will score higher
on empathy.
Method
Participants
A total of 2158 multilinguals (1589 females, 457 males) filled out the questionnaire.
The participants reported 204 different nationalities, including many participants
with double nationalities. The largest group came from the USA (n 478), followed
by British (n299), Dutch (n145), Belgian (n81), German (n 81), Canadian
(n76), Polish (n65), French (n58), Spanish (n42), Chinese (n41), Croatian
(n41), Turkish (n35), Swiss (n34), Portuguese (n33), Swedish (n28),
Italian (n28), Japanese (n27) and so on.
2
English was the most frequent L1
(n866), followed by Dutch (n195), French (n155), Spanish (n138), German
(n124), Polish (n 71), Chinese (n63), Portuguese (n52), Arabic (n41),
Croatian (n 40), Russian (n 40), Turkish (n36), Italian (n32), Japanese
(n27), Swedish (n26), Greek (n23), Farsi (n 22), Hebrew (n21), Korean
(n21), Romanian (n 16), Hungarian (n14), Norwegian (n14), etc. The most
frequent L2 was English (n924) followed by French (n 455), Spanish (n248),
German (n143), etc. The pattern was different for the L3 with French coming first
(n424), followed by German (n330), English (n248) and Spanish (n 222).
The most frequent L4s were German (n205), Spanish (n196), French (n174)
and English (n 44). The most frequent L5 was Spanish (n101), Italian (n69),
French (n50), and German (n49). Mean age of acquisition of the L2 was
10.1 years (SD5.4), this increased to 15 years for the L3 (SD 6.4), 18.3 years for
the L4 (SD 7.8) and 21.7 for the L5 (SD8.6).
The sample consists of 41 monolinguals, 399 bilinguals, 566 trilinguals, 557
quadrilinguals, 359 pentalinguals, 143 sextalinguals, 54 septalinguals, 21 octalinguals,
9 participants reported knowing 9 languages, 5 participants knew 10 languages,
and 1 participant knew 12 languages. A single category was created including all
participants with six or more languages. A majority (n 1866) reported having
one single L1, a small proportion reported growing up with two L1s (n274) and
6 J.M. Dewaele and L. Wei
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18 participants grew up with three languages from birth (the latter two groups
were aggregated).
The mean age was 34.5 years (SD12.1). Participants are generally highly
educated with 31 having a high school diploma, 606 a Bachelor’s degree, 712
a Master’s degree and 613 a Doctoral degree.
This sample of highly educated, mostly female polyglots, is quite typical for
online questionnaires dealing with language issues (Wilson & Dewaele, 2010). The
main advantage of online questionnaires is the ability to collect data from all around
the world, eliminating ‘local’ effects such as a dislike for a particular language and
its speakers, and it allows the recruitment of participants from a wide age range
(Wilson & Dewaele, 2010).
Instruments
We used an adapted version of Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright’s (2004) questionnaire
to measure the Empathy Quotient. The authors describe their instrument as being
‘short, easy to use, and easy to score’ (p. 166).
Lawrence et al. (2004, p. 912) explain that the EQ was ‘explicitly designed
to have a clinical application and be sensitive to a lack of empathy as a feature
of psychopathology’. It was validated on healthy control volunteers and a smaller
number of people with Asperger’s Syndrome and High-functioning Autism (p. 912).
The questionnaire has 60 items (20 of which were filler items) with Likert scale
responses (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright 2004, p. 166). The authors performed
exploratory factor analysis in order to explore the various components of empathy.
Three factors emerged from the analysis, explaining 41% of the variance:
(1) Cognitive Empathy: ‘measures the appreciation of affective states’ (Lawrence
et al., 2004, p. 918);
(2) Emotional Reactivity: ‘reflects the tendency to have an emotional reaction
in response to others’ mental states’ (p. 918);
(3) Social Skills: ‘the spontaneous use of such skills and/or a lack of intuitive
social understanding’ (p. 918).
Women scored slightly but significantly higher on EQ than men in the normal
control group (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004, p. 170).
Because of length restrictions in our online questionnaire, we selected five items
per dimension and ignored the filler items. We choose the items with the highest
factor loadings in Lawrence et al. (2004, p. 915) (see Appendix).
Our open-access questionnaire remained online on SurveyMonkey between
December 2010 and March 2011, and attracted 2158 valid responses from multi-
linguals across the world. It was advertised through several LISTSERVs, targeted
emails to multilingual colleagues and their students in academic institutions, and
informal contacts around the world. Participants started by filling out a short
sociobiographical questionnaire. It contained questions about sex, age, nationality,
language history and present language use.
We used participants’ information on frequency of use of their various languages
and self-perceived competence in speaking and writing these languages to develop
two measures of multilingualism, first presented in Dewaele and Stavans (2012).
Cook (2002, p. 7) argues that ‘Acquiring another language alters the L2 user’s mind
International Journal of Multilingualism 7
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in ways that go beyond the actual knowledge of language itself’, we wonder
whether a high level of proficiency or a high frequency of use of foreign languages, or
both, lead to multicompetence.
We thus developed a first multilingualism index based on language knowledge,
or a ‘total proficiency score’, which is the sum of self-perceived competence
scores collected on 5-point Likert scales in up to six languages. Such a measure is
potentially useful to distinguish self-professed pentalinguals with minimal compe-
tence in three languages from trilinguals with maximal proficiency in three languages.
The latter might know fewer languages, but knowing them to higher level
undoubtedly makes the individual more strongly multilingual. In other words,
rather than sticking to the imprecise labels ‘bilingual, trilingual, quadrilingual, etc’,
considering every language as a discrete entity, despite the fact that competence can
be near zero, we consider the multilingual users’ accumulated language knowledge
across languages. The total proficiency score is the sum of the proficiency scores on
5-point Likert scales for oral proficiency (maximum score 5) and written proficiency
(maximum score 5) for up to six languages (including two L1s) (maximal possible
score 10660). In the present sample, total proficiency scores varied between
5 and 55 with a mean of 25.5 (SD8.0).
The same principle was applied for language use. Multilinguals who rarely use
their foreign languages can be distinguished from those who use them more
frequently. This is a measure of intercultural communicative activity. The total
language use score is the sum of frequency of use scores on 5-point Likert scales for
up to six languages (maximal possible score 5630). In the present study, total
frequency of language use scores varied between 3 and 30 with a mean of 11.2
(SD3.8).
A scale analysis revealed that our 15-item Empathy Quotient had insufficient
internal consistency (Cronbach’s a 0.38). Separate analyses of the three subscales
showed that cognitive empathy was internally consistent (Cronbach’s a 0.84), but
that Emotional Reactivity and Social skills were unacceptably low, with Cronbach’s
alpha of 0.16 and 0.22, respectively. We therefore decided to limit our analysis to
cognitive empathy. Scores of the 1936 participants who filled out all five items of this
subscale varied between 5 and 25, with a mean of 18.5 (SD 3.5). A one-sample
Kolmogorov Smirnov test showed that the values for cognitive empathy are normally
distributed, allowing the use of parametric statistics.
Results
Knowledge of multiple languages
An ANOVA showed no significant effect of knowledge of multiple languages on
cognitive empathy (F0.9, pns). The expected trend was present, with mono-
linguals having the lowest mean score (mean18.0, SD 4.0) and sextalinguals
having the highest score (mean 18.9, SD3.7), but a Tukey HSD post-hoc test
showed that the difference between both groups was not significant.
Level of multilingualism
The two independent variables, total frequency scores and total proficiency use,
are highly correlated with each other (r(2136) 0.762, pB0.0001). In other words,
highly proficient language users are also frequent language users.
8 J.M. Dewaele and L. Wei
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A Pearson correlation analysis revealed a small but significant positive correlation
between total proficiency scores and cognitive empathy scores (r(1934)0.068,
pB0.003). A comparable relationship emerged between total frequency scores and
cognitive empathy scores (r(1922)0.072, p B 0.001). These results suggest that
higher levels of multilingualism, as measured through individuals’ total proficiency
and total frequency of language use, are linked with significantly higher levels of
cognitive empathy. In order to visualise the findings, we assigned our participants to
three groups (Low, Medium and High) for total proficiency and total frequency.
Participants whose scores for total proficiency and total frequency fell within 1 SD
above or below the mean were placed in the Medium group, those with scores
that were 1 SD above the mean were placed in the High group, those with scores that
were 1 SD below the mean were placed in the Low group (see Table 1).
An ANOVA revealed a significant effect of total frequency on cognitive empathy
(F (2, 1922) 3.78, p B0.023). A Tukey HSD post-hoc test showed that the
High group scored significantly higher on Cognitive Empathy than the Low group
(pB0.019). Although a roughly similar picture emerged for total proficiency, it
failed to reach statistical significance (F (2, 1934) 1.58, p0.15) (see Figure 1). A
look at the patterns in Figure 1 shows a linear increase on cognitive empathy along
the three groups of total frequency. In other words, the more frequently participants
used their various languages, the higher their scores on cognitive empathy. The
pattern differs for total proficiency where the scores on cognitive empathy are similar
for the Low and the Medium group, and only increase for the High group.
Bi- or trilingual upbringing
An independent samples t-test revealed that the 263 participants who had been
exposed to two or three languages simultaneously since birth did not score
significantly higher on cognitive empathy (mean18.7, SD3.6) compared to the
1673 participants who had been brought up monolingually (mean18.5, SD3.7)
(t (1934)0.56, pns).
Stay abroad
An independent samples t-test revealed that the 1378 participants who had lived
abroad did not score significantly higher on cognitive empathy (mean18.6,
SD3.7) than the 557 participants who had never lived abroad (mean18.3,
SD3.5) (t (1933)1.32, pns).
Table 1. Distribution of participants according to scores on total
frequency and total proficiency.
Total frequency Total proficiency
Low 168 251
Medium 1495 1424
High 259 259
Total 1922 1934
International Journal of Multilingualism 9
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Age, gender and education level
A Pearson correlation analysis showed no relationship between participants’ age
and their cognitive empathy scores (r (2147)0.009, pns).
An independent samples t-test showed that the 1448 female participants scored
significantly higher on cognitive empathy (mean18.7, SD3.6) compared to the
388 male participants (mean 18.0, SD3.6) (t (1835) 3.26, p B 0.001).
An ANOVA showed that level of education was marginally linked to cognitive
empathy scores (F (3, 1929) 2.31, p 0.074). Participants with university education
tended to score higher on cognitive empathy (see Table 2).
Discussion
The results show that the number of languages known by participants and their
linguistic histories are not related to levels of cognitive empathy. However, a posi-
tive relationship emerged between levels of multilingualism and cognitive empathy.
This confirms earlier studies showing small but significant relationships between
indices of multilingualism on the one hand, and personality traits on the other hand
(Dewaele & Stavans, 2012; Dewaele & Wei, in press).
To sum up, our first hypothesis was rejected as participants knowing more
languages did not score higher on cognitive empathy than those knowing fewer
17,4
17,6
17,8
18
18,2
18,4
18,6
18,8
19
19,2
Low Medium High
Total frequency and total proficiency
Frequency
Proficiency
Figure 1. The relationship between total proficiency, total frequency and cognitive empathy.
Table 2. The effect of education level on cognitive empathy (ANOVA).
Education level Cognitive empathy
High school 17.47
BA 18.41
MA 18.78
Ph.D. 18.44
10 J.M. Dewaele and L. Wei
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languages. We did have enough evidence to confirm our more fine-grained second
hypothesis: participants with higher levels of multilingualism scored significantly
higher on cognitive empathy. A follow-up analysis showed that frequent use of
multiple languages had a stronger effect on cognitive empathy than mere proficiency
in multiple languages.
Our third and fourth hypotheses were rejected: participants who had been
brought up bi- or trilingually did not score higher on cognitive empathy compared
to those who grew up monolingually and a stay abroad was not linked to superior
levels of cognitive empathy.
Our final hypothesis was partly confirmed as participants’ gender was linked
to cognitive empathy scores, with female participants scoring higher than male
participants. Participants with higher levels of education also tended to score higher
on cognitive empathy. Age was unrelated with scores on cognitive empathy.
These findings show that cognitive empathy is significantly linked to some
aspects of individual’s knowledge and frequency of use of various languages. The
fact that a bi-/trilingual upbringing was not linked to higher levels of cognitive
empathy suggests that the presence of two (or three) languages/cultures in the
home environment is insufficient in itself to make somebody more cognitively
empathic. Contrary to our findings for TA (Dewaele & Wei, in press), which was
boosted by sudden massive exposure to unfamiliar languages and cultures, the stay
abroad did not seem linked to increased levels of cognitive empathy. The most
interesting finding is that higher levels of active multilingualism are linked with
higher scores on cognitive empathy. A similar pattern was found in Korzilius et al.
(2011) who reported a significant positive correlation between self-assessed knowl-
edge of foreign languages and Cultural Empathy (p. 546). It shows that average
proficiency in several languages is unlikely to change the mind (and the personality)
of the L2 learner/user much and while higher levels of proficiency seem to
correspond with higher levels of cognitive empathy, the effect is less progressive
than for total frequency of use of languages. Indeed, multilinguals who use all
their languages frequently score significantly higher on cognitive empathy. One could
argue that these multilinguals have become truly ‘multicompetent’ (Cook, 1992). It
is tempting to see a causal relationship between multilingualism and increased
cognitive empathy. However, the reverse relationship is equally possible, namely that
individuals with higher levels of cognitive empathy develop a keener interest to
acquire and use foreign languages, and are therefore more likely to attain higher
levels of multilingualism. Such a relationship was reported in the literature, with
international exchange students scoring higher on Openmindedness, Social Initiative,
Flexibility and Emotional Stability compared to a control group in the home
institution, before departure (Leong, 2007).
Our study has a number of obvious limitations. The main issue is the difficulty
of measuring empathy. The instrument we developed based on the EQ (Baron-Cohen
& Wheelwright, 2004) was less reliable overall than we had expected. The low
levels of internal consistency of the whole Empathy scale, and two subscales,
Emotional Reactivity and Social Skills, meant that we could only use a single
subscale with a strong internal consistency, namely cognitive empathy. It is striking
that the five items in the latter scale were all positively worded (see Appendix),
while three out of five items in the Emotional Reactivity and four out of five items
in the Social Skills scales were negatively worded. Is it possible that too many of
our respondents suffered from fatigue in filling out a relatively long questionnaire
International Journal of Multilingualism 11
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(50 questions) and that too many struggled with the double negatives? This was
unfortunate as one might expect multilingual individuals to have developed stronger
intercultural social skills, and we expected them to score higher on this particular
scale. That said, we have pointed out in Wilson and Dewaele (2010) that online
instruments of this length (about 20 minutes to fill out) yield solid results.
Our operationalisation of multilingualism is a crude one. It is inevitably a rela-
tively simplistic way of measuring a multilayered and complex phenomenon. We
would argue however, that a crude measure is better than the mere sum of languages
(bilingual, trilingual and so on), and we hope this may be an impetus for the develop-
ment of more sophisticated measures.
We also aware that our self-selected sample does not necessarily reflect the
‘general population’ because of the high proportion of women, highly educated
participants and the obvious need to be connected to Internet. It has been argued
that this is not necessarily a weakness since filling out this type of questionnaire
requires a relatively high level of metalinguistic and metacognitive awareness (Wilson
& Dewaele, 2010). While this unbalance does not invalidate the findings, it needs to
be kept in mind when interpreting the results.
We feel that our study also had a number of strengths. The large sample from
monolinguals and multilinguals, including polyglots, from all over the world ensured
a good level of ecological validity (Wilson & Dewaele, 2010). The wide age range
also means that the sample included not just foreign language learners but also
experienced foreign language users.
Conclusion
A growing number of studies have shown that the effect multilingualism extends
beyond the cognitive level and affects more than just executive control (Barac &
Bialystok, 2011). Indeed, multilingualism has been linked to creative behaviour and
divergent thinking (Kharkhurin, 2008, 2010). Recent research also suggests that a
relationship exists between multilingualism and personality profiles, with frequent
and proficient users of several languages typically scoring higher on Openness/
Openmindedness (Dewaele & Stavans, 2012; Dewaele & Van Oudenhoven, 2009;
Korzilius et al., 2011), on TA (Dewaele & Wei, in press) and suffering less from
FLA (Dewaele, 2010a, 2010b).
Most research in the field of foreign language and multilingualism has used
empathy as a predictor variable (Guiora, Brannon, et al., 1972; Hu et al., 2012;
Ozanska-Ponikwia & Dewaele, 2012; Reiterer, 2011; Rota & Reiterer, 2009). One
previous study that looked at personality traits as dependent variables and included
multilingualism as an independent variable found that high levels of multilingualism
corresponded with higher levels of Cultural Empathy, Openmindedness and Social
Initiative (Dewaele & Stavans, 2012).
The findings of the present study are congruent: multilingual participants
(especially those using multiple languages frequently) score higher on cognitive
empathy, which means that they will tend to be more skilful in conversations
as they can see the world from their interlocutor’s point of view. One could
therefore conclude that these participants have indeed become multicompetent
(Cook, 2002).
12 J.M. Dewaele and L. Wei
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the reviewers and the guest editors for their useful comments and
suggestions.
Notes
1. We are obviously aware of the recent surge of research on the linguistic effects of
multilingualism in additional language learning and usage (De Angelis, 2007; De Angelis
& Dewaele, 2011), but this lies outside the scope of the present paper.
2. To avoid taking up too much space, we will only report the largest groups.
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Appendix
Cognitive Empathy
(1) I can tell if someone is masking their true emotion.
(2) I can tune into how someone else feels rapidly and intuitively.
(3) I am good at predicting how someone will feel.
(4) I can easily workout what another person might want to talk about.
(5) I can sense if I am intruding, even if the other person doesn’t tell me.
Emotional Reactivity
(6) Seeing people cry doesn’t really upset me reverse
(7) I tend to get emotionally involved with a friend’s problems.
(8) I get upset if I see people suffering on news programmes.
(9) It is hard for me to see why some things upset people so much reverse
(10) Other people often say that I am insensitive, though I don’t always see why reverse
Social Skills
(11) I find it hard to know what to do in a social situation. reverse
(12) I don’t tend to find social situations confusing.
(13) Friendships and relationships are just too difficult, so I tend not to bother with them
reverse
(14) I often find it difficult to judge if something is rude or polite reverse
(15) I find it difficult to explain to others things that I understand easily, when they don’t
understand it first time reverse
Source: Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright (2004).
International Journal of Multilingualism 15
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