Accents, Nonverbal Behavior, and Intergroup Bias

Dovidio, John F.; Gluszek, Agata

doi:10.4324/9780203148624.ch7

Cited by 27 publications

(52 citation statements)

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“…Together, these findings provide compelling evidence of systematic effects of processing fluency on language attitudes, independent of stereotyping , by demonstrating that factors which reduce listeners' processing fluency (e.g., noise) can also have a negative effect on listeners' language attitudes. Given that foreign‐accented speech tends to be more difficult to process than native‐accented speech (e.g., Munro & Derwing, ), results of the present research suggest that one reason foreign‐accented speakers tend to be evaluated more negatively than native‐accented speakers is simply because they are harder to understand (see also, Dovidio & Gluszek, ). Our findings suggest that this evaluative downgrading is likely to occur even in the absence of negative stereotypes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

I Don't Like You Because You're Hard to Understand: The Role of Processing Fluency in the Language Attitudes Process

2016

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Two experiments examined the effects of processing fluency—that is, the ease with which speech is processed—on language attitudes toward native‐ and foreign‐accented speech. Participants listened to an audio recording of a story read in either a Standard American English (SAE) or Punjabi English (PE) accent. They heard the recording either free of noise or mixed with background white noise of various intensity levels. Listeners attributed more solidarity (but equal status) to the SAE than the PE accent. Compared to quieter listening conditions, noisier conditions reduced processing fluency, elicited a more negative affective reaction, and resulted in more negative language attitudes. Processing fluency and affect mediated the effects of noise on language attitudes. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

I Don't Like You Because You're Hard to Understand: The Role of Processing Fluency in the Language Attitudes Process

2016

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“…Yet it is still unclear whether listeners commonly detect specific social group backgrounds from nonnative accents and draw inferences accordingly (Gluszek & Dovidio, ). In fact, the detection of accent origins may oftentimes be ambiguous and require elaboration (Dovidio & Gluszek, ; Mai & Hoffmann, ). It has been argued that foreignness may take the place of specific associations if an accent's background cannot be determined (e.g., Gluszek & Dovidio, ; Lindemann, ).…”

Section: Social Categorization and Specific Social Group Associations?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The evolutionary importance of nonnative accents as cues to foreignness (see Kinzler et al, 2010;Pietraszewski & Schwartz, 2014a, 2014bReid et al, 2012) foresees fast affective preparedness reactions (Buss, 2008). 1 Subtle negative affect likely also arises from the disfluency of nonnative accents (Dovidio & Gluszek, 2012;Dragojevic & Giles, 2016;Ryan, 1983). Such basic affective associations may be stored in the schema of nonnative accents (Cargile, Giles, Ryan, & Bradac, 1994;Fiske, 1982).…”

Section: Affectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The core of morality, (dis)trust (Brambilla & Leach, 2014), should be triggered by nonnative accents' foreignness (Kinzler, Corriveau, & Harris, 2011). In addition, disfluency may contribute to distrust perceptions (Dovidio & Gluszek, 2012;Lev-Ari & Keysar, 2010). The resulting downgrading on trust may likely also manifest itself in a conceptual nonnative accent-low trust link.…”

Section: Stereotypes and Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What's in an accent? General spontaneous biases against nonnative accents: An investigation with conceptual and auditory IATs

Roessel

Schoel

Stahlberg

2017

Euro J Social Psych

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Nonnative accents are prevalent in our globalized world and constitute highly salient cues in social perception. Whereas previous literature has commonly assumed that they cue specific social group stereotypes, we propose that nonnative accents generally trigger spontaneous negatively biased associations (due to a general nonnative accent category and perceptual influences). Accordingly, Study 1 demonstrates negative biases with conceptual IATs, targeting the general concepts of accent versus native speech, on the dimensions affect, trust, and competence, but not on sociability. Study 2 attests to negative, largely enhanced biases on all dimensions with auditory IATs comprising matched native–nonnative speaker pairs for four accent types. Biases emerged irrespective of the accent types that differed in attractiveness, recognizability of origin, and origin‐linked national associations. Study 3 replicates general IAT biases with an affect IAT and a conventional evaluative IAT. These findings corroborate our hypotheses and assist in understanding general negativity toward nonnative accents.

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“…People often make assumptions about and attribute to others various traits simply based on how they speak. Indeed, research on the social evaluation of speech styles, or language attitudes , has shown that the use of particular languages, dialects, and accents can have significant consequences for users of those forms (see Dovidio & Gluszek, , ; Giles & Marlow, ; Giles & Watson, ). Language attitudes have been theorized to result from two sequential cognitive processes: identification and stereotyping (e.g., Lambert, ; Ryan, ).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Reference Frame Effect: An Intergroup Perspective on Language Attitudes

Dragojević

Giles

2013

Hum Commun Res

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Invoking self‐categorization and social identity theories, this study predicted that ingroups would be evaluated more favorably than outgroups, but that ingroup membership would change as a function of reference frame. Using the matched‐guise technique, moderate and broad American Southern English accented guises were presented to Californian listeners (N = 175). These were paired either with a Californian‐accented (interregional reference frame) or Punjabi‐accented English speaker (international reference frame). Listeners reported a stronger sense of connection with the Southern‐accented guises, perceived their accents as more similar, and upgraded them on solidarity traits when reference frame was international (i.e., ingroup categorization) rather than interregional (i.e., outgroup categorization). Reference frame had no effect on status ratings. Implications of this reference frame effect are discussed.

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Accents, Nonverbal Behavior, and Intergroup Bias

Cited by 27 publications

References 0 publications

I Don't Like You Because You're Hard to Understand: The Role of Processing Fluency in the Language Attitudes Process

I Don't Like You Because You're Hard to Understand: The Role of Processing Fluency in the Language Attitudes Process

What's in an accent? General spontaneous biases against nonnative accents: An investigation with conceptual and auditory IATs

The Reference Frame Effect: An Intergroup Perspective on Language Attitudes

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