Mood and gender effects in emotional word processing in unbalanced bilinguals

Aims and objectives: We aimed to explore the relationship between mood and emotional word processing in the bilingual context, as modulated by participants’ gender. Methodology: We presented mood-inducing film clips to 28 female and 28 male unbalanced Polish–English bilinguals to put them in positive and negative moods. Participants were asked to decide if native language (L1) and non-native language (L2) single words were positive, negative, or neutral (an emotive decision task). Data and analysis: We analysed participants’ subjective mood ratings pre- and post-experimentally together with speed (a linear mixed-effects model) and accuracy (a generalised mixed-effects model) of their responses to single L1 and L2 words. Findings: The results revealed an interaction between mood and language as dependent on word valence, whereby faster reaction times (RTs) were observed to L1 than L2 neutral words only in a positive mood and to L2 positive words in a positive than negative mood. We also observed a response facilitation in a positive compared to negative mood, yet only in females. Finally, we observed faster and more accurate responses to positive and negative compared to neutral words, irrespective of gender and language of operation. Altogether, the results suggest that mood influences how unbalanced bilinguals respond to emotional words and shed a novel light on the role of participants’ gender in emotional word processing. Originality: This study extends monolingual research on emotional word processing to the bilingual context and shows how word valence modulates the way unbalanced bilinguals, being put in positive and negative moods, respond to L1 and L2 words. Our results also offer novel insights into research on mood and language, demonstrating that females can be more susceptible to mood changes than males. Significance: Our results highlight the importance of controlling participants’ mood and gender in research on emotional language processing in both monolingual and bilingual contexts.