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WHEN IT MATTERS HOW YOU PRONOUNCE IT: THE INFLUENCE OF REGIONAL ACCENTS ON JOB INTERVIEW OUTCOME
Tamara Rakic, Melanie C. Steffens and Amelie Mummendey
Ignazio Ziano
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WHAT CAN WE INFER FROM VOICES If we listen to Bruce & Young (1986),
there are specific and unspecific aspects of face recognition
But both aspect can be processed simultaneously Identity and gender (Ganel&Goshen-
Gottstein, 2002)
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WHAT CAN WE INFER FROM VOICES Some categorical information (i.e.,
gender and race) can be extracted during the face encoding process Identity recognition and categorization
influence each other (Quinn and MacRae, 2011)
Some dimensions (gender, race, identity) are immediately and automatically activated. Face is important, but voice is important as
well (Zuckerman et al, 2011)
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LINK BETWEEN VISUAL AND AUDITORY PERCEPTION
Visual and auditory recognition are strongly linked Auditory cortex is used for silent speech-
reading (Calvert & al, 1997) Mc Gurk effect (Mc Gurk, 1976)
Face and voice contribute to identify a familiar speaker’s identity (Schweinberger et al, 2007)
They both are central and they interact
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WHAT CAN WE INFER FROM VOICES A lot of information is inferred from
voices. Age Gender Personality traits
Voice attractiveness leads to more complex inferences Personality traits (competence,
intelligence) General physical characteristics
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LANGUAGE STANDARDIZATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
During the history of language development, languages undergo a series of changed called standardization one among a set of similar languages
becomes standard and the others become non-standard
GermanyHochdeutsch; Francelangue d’oil; Italy toscano
Standardization of language correlates with economic development.
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ITALIAN DIALECTS
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GERMAN DIALECTS
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FRENCH DIALECTS
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LANGUAGE STANDARDIZATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
The standardized language acquires superiority on different levels (status, prestige).
Standard speakers are perceived as more competent as non-standard speakers
Belgian French speakers vs French French speakers even by Belgians (Yzerbyt et al, 2005)
British were perceived more intelligent and higher-status than Americans even by Americans (Stewart et al, 1985)
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LANGUAGE STANDARDIZATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
Long story short: accents (or other linguistic features) lead to the perception of speaker group membership, which in turn causes a judgment of group status and consequently, of speaker status (Ng & Bradac, 1993).
Accent group speaker status
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WHY DO DIALECTS PERSIST THEN? Social pressure towards standardization
is heavy Everybody should be speaking correct
«standard language» because it is better forr your own social perception
Dialects and regional accents persist because of the strong language-ethnicity bond Dialects and accents are part of our
identity
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DIALECTS AND REGIONAL ACCENTS IN EVERYDAY LIFE
People use different speech strategies depending on the context (speech accomodation) Dialect with your granma Strong accent with your childhod friends Standard language in university or at work
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DIALECTS AND REGIONAL ACCENTS IN EVERYDAY LIFE
In general standard language users are evaluated more positively
But it depends. Meataanalyses show that dialect speakers are usually rated less
competent and with a lower socio-intellectual status
but with higher loyalty and integrity.
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EMPLOYABILITY Perceived intelligence and competence
are decisive factors for employability Speech style should be irrelevant for
manual labor positions BUT NOT for management positions
(stand-offish, more resolute speech more competence evaluation).
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EXPERIMENT 1 - PARTICIPANTS N=98 age range 18-30
mean age 21.86. 50% from Thuringia 20% from Saxony 20 % from West Germany. 5 non-native speakers
Excluding them, patterns remained the same.
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SPEAKERS’ ACCENT 6 different speakers
4 male German standard accent Berlin accent Saxon accent Bavarian accent
2 female German standard accent Saxon accent
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MATERIALS AND PROCEDURE - PRESTUDY In a prestudy (N=18), participant
demonstrated not to be able of discriminating between different, same-sex speakers responded on a 7 point likert
1 = definitely different 4 = not sure 7 = definitely the same person
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THE TASK They had to assess
Competence Hirability Socio – intellectual status
Based on Job description
Leadership role in middle management position Willingly vague not to confound
The speakers’ answer Designed to show high competence and social skill
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THE SCALES Competence scale Social skills scale Hirability scale
One item specific for hirability SDAS(speech dialect attitudinal scale)
(Mulac 1975, 1976) to assess the socio intellectual status and
aesthetic qualities of the voice
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RESULTS Preliminary tests about
gender aesthetic quality of the voice participants’ regional background participants’ own indicated use of dialect
revealed no influence on hirability.
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RESULTS Standard accent were perceived as more
competent hirable of higher socio-intellectual status
than regional accent speakers. Bavarian speakers were perceived as
having as high a socio-intellectual status as standard speakers. Bavaria is economically strong?
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EXPERIMENT 2 Conducted to exclude any possible
confound of individual voice characteristics.
N=140 age range between 18 and 70 years.
(M=35) No origin effect (62% from Thuringia)
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THE SPEAKERS 6 speakers;
2 men Berlin accent Saxon accent
4 women Berlin accent Saxon accent Bavarian accent Cologne accent
One sentence each, both with accent and with regional accent; trained for the same speech rate
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THE TASK Participants had to evaluate one set of 6
statements half in standard German half with regional accents
evaluate the speakers as they were professional recruiters
Evaluations on likert scales 3 statements about hirability 2 statements for competence.
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DISCUSSION Regional accents instead of dialects
kept confounds to a minimum Why are accent speakers evaluated
more negatively? Ingroup/outgroup Failed compliance to a social norm (speech
accomodation) Laziness impression?
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DISCUSSION Why were Bavarians higher rated socio-
intellectually than other accents’ speakers? Economic prowess of Bavaria?
but why were they not evaluated as more competent or more hirable as well?
Triggered stereotypes are likely more complicated than that
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DISCUSSION In Experiment 2,no position was
specified accent still exerted a negative
influence on hirability so contradicting the findings of no
outcome of accent on manual labor (Hopper and Williams 1973).
However some kind of jobs could be linked to regional accents further research.
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DISCUSSION The sample did not consist of
professional recruiter Students seem to be more tolerant
than recruiters however, there are similar findings in a
recruiters’ population (Atkins 1993) stronger effects on recruiters?
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DISCUSSION – GENDER EFFECT No gender effect? Fiske (1998) accounts that women are
generally perceived as less competent than men.
Change in stereotyping?
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DISCUSSION – REGION OF ORIGIN Did the region of origin have an effect
on the triggered effect? Would the effect be different if the data
were collected in Bavaria? Are some regional accents evaluated as
worse than others?
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DISCUSSION – AWARENESS AND WEAKNESS
Can people be trained to be aware of the influence of accents?
Can weak regional accents exerts some influence?
Lack of comprehension of accented speech (Adank et al 2009)?
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