Bilinguals’ emotions can vary in intensity with the language of a stimulus. Yet, extant research has somewhat surprisingly accepted inconsistent results from implicit nonverbal and explicit verbal emotion measures. To date, it is unclear if this inconsistency recurs to conceptual or methodological differences. We therefore investigated if squeezing a handheld dynamometer is a valid nonverbal, “visceral” alternative to self-reported language-dependent feelings by comparing explicit ratings to neuro-physiological emotional reactions. We replicated two pupillometry experiments inducing language-dependent emotions through sentence reading (Study 1) and listening to narrative video commercials (Study 2) of low and high emotionality in the first or second language. Pupillometry confirmed that bilinguals are more sensitive to the low-high emotionality contrast in their first than second language. Grip force (but not duration) mirrored these findings, whereas verbal ratings did not. We thus recommend grip force as a new attentional, nonverbal measure for bilingualism research.

双语者的情绪强度会随着刺激的语言而变化。然而，现存的研究有些令人惊讶地接受了隐含的非语言和显性语言情绪测量的不一致结果。迄今为止，尚不清楚这种不一致是否会再次出现概念或方法上的差异。因此，我们通过比较明确的评级与神经生理情绪反应，调查了挤压手持式测力计是否是一种有效的非语言、“本能”替代自我报告的语言依赖感受。我们重复了两个瞳孔测量实验，通过句子阅读（研究 1）和收听第一语言或第二语言的低情绪和高情绪的叙事视频广告（研究 2）来诱发语言相关情绪。瞳孔测量法证实，双语者对第一语言的低情绪对比比第二语言更敏感。握力（但不是持续时间）反映了这些发现，而口头评分则没有。因此，我们建议将握力作为双语研究的一种新的注意力、非语言测量方法。