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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)?