279  2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc. ● Vol. 35 ● August 2008 All rights reserved. 0093-5301/2008/3502-0008$10.00. DOI: 10.1086/586914 One Individual, Two Identities: Frame Switching among Biculturals DAVID LUNA TORSTEN RINGBERG LAURA A. PERACCHIO* Bicultural bilingual individuals have incorporated two cultures within themselves and speak the languages of those cultures. When cued by a particular language, these individuals activate distinct sets of culture-specific concepts, or mental frames, which include aspects of their identities. Three studies show that language- triggered frame switching (i.e., switching from one set of mental frames to another) occurs only with biculturals, not with bilinguals who are not bicultural. The studies uncover frame switching at the within-individual level, and they include both qual- itative and experimental evidence. They also provide a methodology to identify the relative activation strength of specific mental frames in different languages. B icultural bilinguals (henceforth called “biculturals”) are those individuals who have internalized two cultures and who speak the languages associated with each of those cultures. Biculturals often report feeling “like a different person” when they speak different languages (LaFromboise, Coleman, and Gerton 1993). This suggests that biculturals may have distinct cognitive frameworks associated with each of their cultures and languages and that those mental frames may consist of different repertoires of values and behaviors as well as separate worldviews and identities (Bri- ley, Morris, and Simonson 2005; Phinney and Devich-Na- varro 1997). Recent work in psychology supports the presence of this phenomenon among biculturals (e.g., Hong et al. 2000). That is, bicultural individuals with extensive experience in two cultures seem to access different culture-specific cog- nitive structures, or mental frames, depending on the socio- cultural context. Following recent research, we refer to this switch between culture-specific mental frameworks as “frame switching” (Briley et al. 2005; Hong et al. 2000). *David Luna is associate professor of marketing, Baruch College, New York, NY 10010 (david_luna@baruch.cuny.edu). Torsten Ringberg is as- sistant professor of marketing, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Mil- waukee, WI 53201 (ringberg@uwm.edu). Laura A. Peracchio is professor of marketing, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201 (lperacch@uwm.edu). This research was supported by the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, Baruch College, and the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. The authors thank the JCR editor, associate editor, and reviewers for their helpful input. John Deighton served as editor and Jennifer Aaker served as associate editor for this article. Electronically published March 26, 2008 Such frame switching can result in shifts in sense of self (Verkuyten and Pouliasi 2002, 2006) and has been shown to be moderated by individual differences (Benet-Martı ´nez et al. 2002). Our article focuses on language-triggered switching of culture-specific identity frames, extending recent research in this incipient but growing area of inquiry (e.g., Briley et al. 2005; Ramı ´rez-Esparza et al. 2006) by providing and validating a theory-based psycholinguistic framework. We explain how language can be a cue that activates different culture-specific frames. Each culture has its own frames (Hong et al. 2000), which are learned and used in conjunc- tion with that culture’s language (Foucault 1972). As a re- sult, words in two different languages that may seem to be exact translations of each other are likely to have different sets of culture-specific conceptual associations (Kroll and De Groot 1997), reflecting the differences in cultural frame content. We use this framework to explain why biculturals experience frame switching but monocultural bilinguals do not. We report the results of three empirical studies that sup- port our framework and provide a series of contributions to existing research in frame switching. Thus, studies 1 and 2 investigate frame switching at a within-individual level, ex- posing individuals to similar tasks and stimuli at different times across different languages. Study 1 employs qualita- tive inquiry to identify frame switching as manifested in consumers’ interpretations of advertisements, providing rich narratives that reflect the distinct mental frames activated by different languages. Study 2 takes a closer look at the psychological structure underlying frame switching and ex- perimentally tests study 1’s findings, measuring the relative activation strength of culture-specific mental frames in dif-