This study investigated whether the perception of foreign accents influences judgments about speakers' reliability. Participants listened to statements read by speakers with Spanish accents from Spain and the Dominican Republic and rated how truthful each statement seemed. The study hypothesized the Spain speaker would be seen as more reliable, but found no significant difference in truthfulness ratings between the two speakers. This null result suggests accents may not influence perceptions of truthfulness in the way expected.
A Comparison of the Attitudes of Hong Kongers and Mainland Chinese towards th...Bangulzai
Is Cantonese a language or a dialect? If linguistic factors were the sole criterion, it would
most likely be thought a language, while political and cultural considerations would determine it
to be a dialect, and Bell’s (1976) sociolinguistic typology would place it somewhere in between.
The attitude of the speakers themselves is usually said to be the deciding factor, but no direct
surveys of Cantonese speakers have ever been undertaken.
A Comparison of the Attitudes of Hong Kongers and Mainland Chinese towards th...Bangulzai
Is Cantonese a language or a dialect? If linguistic factors were the sole criterion, it would
most likely be thought a language, while political and cultural considerations would determine it
to be a dialect, and Bell’s (1976) sociolinguistic typology would place it somewhere in between.
The attitude of the speakers themselves is usually said to be the deciding factor, but no direct
surveys of Cantonese speakers have ever been undertaken.
Android & Kotlin - The code awakens #01Omar Miatello
A series of 3 events for building apps with Kotlin on Android.
Introduction to Kotlin, a modern language, developed by JetBrains (those who developed the IDE on which is based Android Studio) that compared to Java is more concise, versatile and with better error handling. The code is 100% interoperable with Java, and can be used to write native Android apps or small component.
El comunicador audiovisual quien es el que se encarga de la reproducción de videos publicitario o institucionales, programas de tv, entre otros. Por otro lado, ésta el comunicador social y periodista que se encarga de investigar y buscar hechos de interés para el público e informar a la vez.
En éste foto reportaje se puede ver los diferentes estudios y salas de edición al igual que los masters de control en los cuales los comunicadores audiovisuales realizan su trabajo para que los programas de tv, entrevistas y entre otros más, puedan salir al aire y así mismo ser expuestos al público.
También se ve a los comunicadores sociales y periodistas trabajado en sus respectivos oficios, se puede observar un estudio en el cual se graba un magazín, el fin de éste foto reportaje es poder mostrarles a los interesados en estos dos campos laborales lo que pueden llegar a desempeñar más adelante .
Android & Kotlin - The code awakens #01Omar Miatello
A series of 3 events for building apps with Kotlin on Android.
Introduction to Kotlin, a modern language, developed by JetBrains (those who developed the IDE on which is based Android Studio) that compared to Java is more concise, versatile and with better error handling. The code is 100% interoperable with Java, and can be used to write native Android apps or small component.
El comunicador audiovisual quien es el que se encarga de la reproducción de videos publicitario o institucionales, programas de tv, entre otros. Por otro lado, ésta el comunicador social y periodista que se encarga de investigar y buscar hechos de interés para el público e informar a la vez.
En éste foto reportaje se puede ver los diferentes estudios y salas de edición al igual que los masters de control en los cuales los comunicadores audiovisuales realizan su trabajo para que los programas de tv, entrevistas y entre otros más, puedan salir al aire y así mismo ser expuestos al público.
También se ve a los comunicadores sociales y periodistas trabajado en sus respectivos oficios, se puede observar un estudio en el cual se graba un magazín, el fin de éste foto reportaje es poder mostrarles a los interesados en estos dos campos laborales lo que pueden llegar a desempeñar más adelante .
The Appropriateness in Advice-Giving From a Cross-Cultural PerspectiveYasser Al-Shboul
This cross-cultural study investigates the differences in the perceptions of the appropriateness in advice giving in English between American English native speakers (AEL1) and Jordanian learners of English as a foreign language (JEFL). Data were collected using an adopted version of a Multiple Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) by Hinkel (1997). The questionnaire consists of eight situations that required advice giving or opting out to a peer acquaintance (equal status) and an instructor (higher status). Each situation was accompanied by three MC selections in random order: direct advice, hedge advice, and indirect comments. The fourth selection was an explicit choice for opting out that remained constant for all selections. Results revealed that both groups have the same perception of the social distance in the situations involving peer acquaintance and instructor. They, however, differed in the types of advice they showed as the appropriate choice. JEFL participants considered direct advice or hedge advice as appropriate option to be used with peer acquaintance and with instructors where in American culture the AEL1 participants found these strategies as least likely appropriate. The paper suggests EFL programs that promote awareness for JEFL on various appropriate conversational strategies in English. The results are expected to be useful information in cross-cultural comparison studies and other related areas.
CULTURAL BIAS IN ASSESSMENT CAN CREATIVITY ASSESSMENT HELP.docxrichardnorman90310
CULTURAL BIAS IN ASSESSMENT:
CAN CREATIVITY ASSESSMENT HELP?
I N T E R N A T I O N A L J O U R N A L O F C R I T I C A L P E D A G O G Y
KYUNG HEE KIM
DARYA ZABELINA
Abstract
Culture and background may lead to the inaccuracy of assessments, including
traditional tests and alternative assessments. Standardized tests intend to measure
intelligence and general knowledge, but they are normed based on the knowledge
and values of the majority groups, which can create bias against minority groups,
including gender, race, community status, and persons with different language
backgrounds, socioeconomic status, and culture. Although alternative assess-
ments are considered to be more culturally fair, they are still not completely fair.
Creativity is as important as intelligence, and creativity assessment measures are
normed on individual cultures. To reduce bias, we suggest that creativity assess-
ments be added to traditional tests and alternative assessments.
Key Words: assessment, cultural bias, creativity, standardized tests, cul-
tural validity
STANDARDIZED TESTS
Standardized tests assert that they are fair and impartial measures of academic
performance and have become the most prevalent measures of the quality of
educational programs. The U.S. No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) required
standardized testing of students at all levels of education: elementary, middle,
and high school. The NCLBA implemented a federally –mandated testing pro-
tocol that continues under the Race to the Top (RttT). Government agencies
use these tests to determine that the various school systems in the U.S. equally
serve every child, no matter their cultural background. However, performance
gaps on standardized tests between ethnic minority groups (African American,
130 | International Journal of Critical Pedagogy | Vol. 6 No. 2, 2015
Latino, and Native American) and non-minority groups (mostly white/European
American, but lately also Asian American students) in the U.S. prevail despite the
government’s effort to reduce them (Arbuthnot, 2009; Forum for Education and
Democracy, 2008; Salinas & Garr, 2009; U.S. Department of Education, 2005).
Method bias may contribute to performance gaps between ethnic minority
groups and non-minority groups in the U. S. due to the norming process of
standardized tests. In general, most tests are normed using the scores of majority
group populations. It may be inappropriate to use the same assessments with indi-
viduals of various racial/ethnic minority groups without norming the instrument
to reflect those groups. If the cultural or linguistic backgrounds of the individuals
being tested are not adequately represented in the norming group, the validity
and reliability of the test are questionable when used with such individuals (Pa-
dilla & Borsato, 2008). For example, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) used an
analogy with the word “regatta” that few African American students knew whil.
The significance of language to multiracial individuals and identity part ii ...David Brooks
The significance of language to multiracial individuals and to their identity part II (Jan 18, 2015).
This is the nearly final version of a joint research paper by David L. Brooks, Associate Prof. Kitasato University, Sagamihara, Japan, and Mikio A. Brooks, Associate Prof, Asia University, Musashisakai, Tokyo.
The paper will be published in the annual Kitasato Review, the research publication of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Kitasato University, Sagamihara, Japan. It is the second in (at least) four-part, multiple section research paper by David Brooks and his elder son, Mikio.
Abstract: Identity means to display ourselves how we want others to perceive us. How people construct their identities has been an important concern. Because, identity is an important mode of lifestyle. Language has been in close relationship with identity. Role of language in maintenance of identity has been obvious in many renowned works. The Present study investigated the role of language in constructing ethnic identity and data interpretation revealed the need and importance of language for maintenance of identity.
The use of interpreters in qualitative research ahonsber
This Slideshare will attempt to uncover some of the practical and theoretical approaches to using an interpreter during field-based research in a country, community or culture that is not that of the researcher.
Language and Thought The Sapir-Whorf HypothesisOne of the most .docxDIPESH30
Language and Thought: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
One of the most important and long-standing debates in studies of language and
behavior involves the relationship between language and thought processes. This
relationship is particularly important to the cross-cultural study of language
because each culture is associated with a given language as a vehicle for its expression.
How does culture influence language? And how does language influence
culture?
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, also referred to as linguistic relativity, suggests
that speakers of different languages think differently, and that they do so because
of the differences in their languages. Because different cultures typically have different
languages, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is especially important for understanding
cultural differences (and similarities) in thought and behavior as a function
of language.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is important to verify, because if correct, it suggests
that people of different cultures think differently, just by the very nature,
structure, and function of their language. Their thought processes, their associations,
their ways of interpreting the world—even the same events we perceive—
may be different because they speak a different language and this language has
helped shape their thought patterns. This hypothesis also suggests that people who
speak more than one language may actually have different thought patterns when
speaking different languages.
Many studies have examined language–cognition issues since Edward Sapir
and Benjamin Whorf first proposed their hypothesis in the 1950s. In one of the
earliest language studies, Carroll and Casagrande (1958) compared Navajo and
English speakers. They examined the relationship between the system of shape classification
in the Navajo language and the amount of attention children pay to
shape when classifying objects. Similar to the Japanese language described earlier
in this chapter, the Navajo language has the interesting grammatical feature that
certain verbs of handling (for example, “to pick up,” “to drop”) require
special linguistic forms depending on what kind of object is being handled. A total
of 11 such linguistic forms describe different shapes—round spherical objects, round
thin objects, long flexible things, and so forth. Noting how much more complex this
linguistic feature is in Navajo than in English, Carroll and Casagrande (1958)
Culture, Language, and Communication 241
suggested that such linguistic features might play a role in influencing cognitive processes.
In their experiment, they compared Navajo- and English-dominant children to
see how often they used shape, form, or type of material to categorize objects. The
Navajo-dominant children were significantly more likely to categorize by shape than
were the English-dominant children. In the same study, Carroll and Casagrande
(1958) also reported that the performance of low-income African American Englishspeaking
children was similar ...
The Effects of Accents on Perceiving Speakers' Truthfulness
1. The Effects of Accents on Perceiving Speakers’ Truthfulness
by
Takiyah R. Walcott
Submitted to the Board of Study in Psychology
School of Natural and Social Sciences
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Bachelor of Arts
Purchase College
State University of New York
May 2016
Sponsor: Ager Gondra
Second Reader: Karen Singer-Freeman
2. 2
ACCENTS AND TRUTHFULNESS
Abstract
The current work investigates if the perception of foreign accents influences people’s judgments
about the reliability of speakers. Twenty-one participants were played 20 recorded statements
(10 by each speaker) that were read by a European speaker or a Latin American speaker. Both
speakers had Spanish accents and subjects were asked to rate how truthful the statements were
on a scale of 1-5. Upon completion, subjects were asked to write if they noticed anything unusual
about the statements that might have impacted their decisions about the truthfulness of the
statements. We hypothesized that participants would find the Spain speaker to be a more reliable
source than the Dominican speaker. However, we failed to find difference between how many
statements spoken by the European were true and how many statements spoken by the
Dominican were judged to be true.
3. 3
ACCENTS AND TRUTHFULNESS
The Effects of Accents on Perceiving Speakers’ Truthfulness
An accent is a unique form of pronunciation in a language often associated with
nationality and/or a speaker’s dialect (Edwards, 1997 as cited by Carlson & McHenry, 2006). It
is a personal characteristic that is sometimes associated with a positive stereotype or negative
stereotype. The stereotype itself can either enhance or belittle the way a person is viewed. For
instance, French English accents and British English accents are often associated with
sophistication, intelligence, and charm. Latin American accents on the other hand are unfairly
criticized, associated with low status, and limited education, success, and intelligence (Brennan,
1997 as cited by Fuertes, 1999).
Though there were many choices to choose from of European accents and Latin
American accents, this experiment intends to focus on accents from Spain and the Dominican
Republic. A European accent in comparison to Latin American accents is a field that has not
gotten much attention. The hypothesis of this study is that when speaking English, people with
Spanish accents from Spain will be considered a more trustworthy/reliable source than people
with Latin American accents (Spanish from the Dominican Republic).
Intelligence can be defined in many different ways but it is most often associated
with an individual’s thoughts, communication skills, understanding, creativity, logic, and
knowledge (Fuertas et al., 2002). It is quite interesting that a distinctive mode of pronunciation as
a result of speaking a foreign language can cause assumptions about one’s communication skills,
understanding, and logic. Research findings from psycholinguistics studies suggest that people
sometimes use speech accents to make inferences about the background and personality traits of
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an individual (Fuertes et al., 2002). These accents can sometimes affect the way listeners view an
individual in terms of attractiveness, social class, and compatibility. Researchers began to come
up with experiments and theories that could possibly explain this phenomenon.
The Accent Prestige theory by (Giles & Powesland, 1975) was developed to
explain why specific accents were associated with intelligence and why others were not. Giles
and Powesland tested their theory and found that speakers in the United Kingdom whose accents
had “first class” accents were often viewed with higher prestige regarding “status” and
“solidarity” than speakers who were not from the UK (Fuertes et al., 2002). Other studies were
done to help understand the assumption of how an accent could possibly help determine the traits
and characteristics of an individual. A study in the United States examined the effects of middle
class White, middle class Black, and “ghetto” Black accents on the evaluations of African
Americans and White listeners inferences about kindness and honesty (Fuertes et al., 2002).
Fuertes et al. that the middle class White and middle class Black accents were not rated
differently on personality traits such as kindness and honesty. However, Ghetto Black accents
received significantly lower ratings of kindness and honesty when rated by White listeners. The
African American listeners did not rate any of the accented groups differently based on their
accents.
Accents seem to have an effect on many things ranging from social class and
personality traits to even compatibility between people. This realization caused the American
Psychological Association to start coming up with better ways to improve the relationships
formed within counseling and/or research. The method they were coming up with was to help
counselors become more open-minded when interacting with their patients. In 1993, the
5. 5
ACCENTS AND TRUTHFULNESS
American Psychological Association’s Board of Minority Affairs came up with a set of
guidelines to encourage mental health professionals to consider and understand cultural
differences such as language differences and interaction styles to help develop better
communication (Fuertes et al., 2002). Interestingly enough, maybe it was not the counselors that
needed to accept/respect the cultural differences, but the patients themselves.
Fuertes (1999) conducted two studies examining how different races perceive
Hispanic counselors. The first study tested Asian Americans and African Americans and the
second study tested Euro-Americans. The counselors were White Hispanic, Mestizo Hispanic,
and Black Hispanic. Fuertes (1999) found it important to test Asian Americans and African
Americans because studies from multicultural counseling suggest that minorities sometimes have
a preference for people of the same race. The Hispanic counselors used in this experiment either
had a thick Spanish accent when speaking English or no Spanish accent at all. The participants’
initial perceptions of the counselors were examined using the Universal-Diverse Orientation
(UDO) by Miville et al. (Fuertes, 1999). The UDO measures attitudes about tolerance, openness,
and respect for differences such as gender, race, physical abilities, and sexual orientation
(Miville, 1992 as cited by Fuertes, 1999). Three outcome measures were used to evaluate initial
perceptions of the counselors: the Counseling Rating-Form Sheet (Corrigan & Schmidt, 1983),
the Working Alliance Inventory-Short (Horvath & Greenberg, 1986, 1989; Tracey & Kokotovic,
1989), and a Likert-type Willingness Scale (Fuertes, 1999). The Counseling Rating-Form Sheet
measured the participants’ ratings of the counselor on expertness, attractiveness, and
trustworthiness. The Working Alliance Inventory-Short measured participants’ expectations and
anticipation of building a counselor-client relationship and the Willingness scale measured how
willing the participants were to work with the counselor long term (Fuertes, 1999). Fuertes
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ACCENTS AND TRUTHFULNESS
(1999) found several interesting results. Participants that scored high on the UDO expressed that
they would enjoy building a therapy relationship with their counselors and were also very willing
to work with the counselors long-term. Fuertes (1999) did not find that the counselors’ race and
accent affected the way Asian Americans and African Americans viewed them. In Fuertes’
(1999) second study that tested Euro-Americans initial perception of Hispanic counselors, the
results were quite different.
Fuertes, Jairo, Gelso, and Charles (2000) conducted a study to see how White
Hispanic, Mestizo Hispanic, and Black Hispanic counselors were perceived by Euro-Americans
(Whites) It was important to examine Euro-Americans in this study because previous research
has shown that race is important to Euro-Americans in shaping perceptions of themselves as well
as others (Fuertes et al., 2000). The Hispanic counselors either had thick Spanish accents or no
Spanish accent at all. It was important to distinguish between the different complexions of the
Hispanic counselors because there was a possibility of a preference. This study utilized the same
measures that were described in Fuertes et al., (1999). Fuertes et al. (2000) found that
participants were more willing to work long-term with the Hispanic counselors that did not have
a Spanish accent than Hispanic counselors that did have an accent. Participants that scored low in
UDO found the counselors with no accent to be more attractive, trustworthy, and professional
than the counselors with an accent. An interesting result was that some of the participants’
preferred to work with the Black Hispanic counselor more than the White Hispanic and Mestizo
Hispanic counselor. Fuertes et al. (2000) explained that the participants’ who had this preference
scored high in UDO. People who score high in UDO are said to find interest in understanding
and learning about the differences of other races and Fuertes et al. (2000) believed that this
perspective could explain why some Euro-Americans preferred the Black Hispanic counselor.
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ACCENTS AND TRUTHFULNESS
These two studies had interesting results regarding perceptions of accented speakers in a
professional setting so it is only right to look at the possible effects of an accent affecting
employability as a whole.
Carlson and McHenry (2006) were interested in the effects an accent or dialect
could have on employability. A dialect is a bit different than an accent. A dialect resembles a
variety of elements of the language that is spoken by the majority but still differs in certain ways
such as syntax and semantics. In this article, Carlson and McHenry describe three major
categories of ethnic accents that are different from Standard American English: Spanish
Influenced English, Asian Influenced English, and African American Vernacular English
(AAVE). For this particular study, the Asian and Spanish influenced speakers were considered to
be “accented speakers” due to phonological features and the AAVE were considered as dialectal
speakers due to morphological differences. Carlson and McHenry hypothesized that
bidialectilism is a good characteristic for speakers to have (the ability to change two different
speaking styles based on social expectations). For instance, when speaking to an elder or giving a
presentation, using the SAE dialect (Standard American English) may be appropriate and when
talking to your peers, using AAVE dialect may be appropriate. For the experiment, three female
bidialectal speakers applied for the same job. The females were given scripts to read in which
they were required to switch their accents and dialect at different times. The actors recorded
several versions of each statement that they made and these recordings were later played for 60
adults that were working in the field of human resource management. Carlson and McHenry
found that speakers of Spanish-influenced English AAVE were rated higher than Asian-
influenced speakers of English in understanding because their speech style was almost similar to
SAE. However, the Asian-influenced speaker was rated as the second highest for employability
8. 8
ACCENTS AND TRUTHFULNESS
despite the participants rating her low on comprehension skills which could possibly indicate that
it is not only the accent of the speaker but the stereotype about them that influences
employability. The lowest rating of employability was given to the AAVE speaker. Carlson and
Henry hypothesize that this may have resulted from negative associations the participants had
about African Americans. If accents influence employability, might they also have an effect on
one’s comfort in the work place?
Previous research has found that discrimination can cause a great amount of stress
and affect an employee’s work ability. A study conducted by the U.S General Accounting Office
(1990) reported 10% of the employees surveyed had been discriminated against because of their
accents (Ryan, Hewstone, & Giles, 1984 as cited by Wated & Sanchez, 2006). Wated,
Guillermo, & Sanchez, Juan I., 2006) conducted an experiment to examine if accents result in
greater stress at work. Researchers measured organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and
work tension among Hispanic workers that have a Spanish accent when speaking English. Wated
and Sanchez hypothesized discrimination would be negatively associated with employee
outcomes. Hispanic students that spoke English with a Spanish accent and were employed full-
time answered questions assessing their organizational commitment, accent-based perceived
discrimination, job satisfaction, role ambiguity, and work tension. Wated and Sanchez found that
discrimination can indeed be a powerful work stressor for employees that are minorities. As for
their first hypothesis, Wated & Sanchez (2006) did not find evidence to support the claim that
accent-based discrimination would predict organizational commitment. Researchers did find that
coping strategies such as self-efficacy, perceived control, and group identity did not seem to help
with accent-based perceived discrimination (Wated & Sanchez, 2006). With several articles
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ACCENTS AND TRUTHFULNESS
about Hispanics and the perception of them based on their accents, it is finally time to look at a
study regarding European accents.
Jeahyeon (2011) was interested in seeing how an instructor’s accent could influence
a student’s achievement and how a students’ accent preference could affect their learning. This
study had three components: survey, instruction, and assessment. Before starting the experiment,
participants were asked to complete a survey assessing their knowledge of statistics, accent
perceptions, and multimedia learning (internet based pictures). The participants were shown a
short tutorial video explaining how to use SPSS (a software program) with an unaccented, a
mildly or heavily European accented, or a mildly or heavily Asian accented voice giving the
instructions. Jeahyeon found that there was not much of a difference between the students’
achievement level whether they heard a native voice or an accented voice. However, students
that did not like Asian accents showed lower performance than those who didn’t mind Asian
accents. European accents were not related to performance. The native voices were higher than
both the European and Asian accented ratings but the European accented rating was much higher
than the Asian accented rating.
Most of the experiments mentioned above examined the effects of African-
American, Asian, and Latin American accents on listeners’ judgments. The previous research
shows that there is indeed a bias towards European accented speakers in comparison to Latin
American accented speakers. The purpose of this senior project is to explore a particular field
that has not gotten much attention: people’s perception on trustworthiness and reliability in a
speaker from Spain and Speaker from DR.
10. 10
ACCENTS AND TRUTHFULNESS
Method
Participants
Twenty-one people participated in this experiment (13 females, 8 males). All of the
participants were born and raised in the United States of America. Subjects were asked to
participate voluntarily and did not receive any compensation. Participants’ ages ranged from 18-
26 and 10 were White, 6 African Americans, 3 Latin Americans, and 2 Asians.
Design
This experiment used a within-subjects design where the independent variable was
Accents (European and Latin American) and the dependent variable was truthfulness.
Materials
Two men (one from Spain, one from the Dominican Republic) were recorded reading 19
statements in English. They were both males with a high school degree and some college
education. The speaker born in Spain was 31 years old and the speaker born in the Dominican
Republic was 23 years old. Due to experimental error, one statement was read by a male speaker
with an American accent. In order to have the same number of statements read with each accent,
the statement read with an American accent and one other statement were excluded. The
recordings were anywhere from 4-21 seconds long. The statements were divided into two
groups. Group 1 included the European speaker reading 9 statements and the Dominican reading
the other 9 students. Group 2 included the same statements read by the speaker with the other
accent. The statements were ordered so that the speakers were alternated.
11. 11
ACCENTS AND TRUTHFULNESS
Procedure
Participants were tested both individually and in groups of 2 people. The recordings
were anywhere from 4-21 seconds long. Participants were played each recorded statement twice
and then asked to circle whether they thought the statement was true (yes or no). Immediately
after, they were asked to rate on a scale of 1-5 how true they believed the statement was with 1
being “not true” and 5 being “true.” After rating the statements, participants’ were given another
sheet of paper that said “Did you notice anything about the recordings? If so, did it impact your
responses in any way?” The participants’ originally heard 20 statements (8 or 9 from each
speaker depending on which group they were in and one from an American speaker) but 2
statements were excluded. The Americans’ statement was excluded because it was not relevant
to my hypothesis. The second statement was excluded in order to maintain the same number of
statements in each accent. We selected a statement which the majority of subjects believed was
false. Upon completion of the task, participants were verbally debriefed and told they would
receive an email regarding the results if they were interested.
Result
I was interested in seeing if people would find a European accent to be a more reliable
source of information than a Latin American accent. Participants judged the Dominican’s
statements to be true an average of 4.67 times (SD = 1.77). They judged the European’s
statements to be true an average of 5.05 times (SD = 1.86). A paired samples t-test was utilized
to assess if people would find the statements of the European accented speaker to be true more
frequently than the statements of the Latin American accented speaker. Results revealed no
significant difference between how many statements spoken by the European were judged to be
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true and how many statements spoken by the Dominican were judged to be true t(20) = -.84, p =
.41.
When asked to rate how likely a statement was to be true using a 1(not truthful) to
5 (truthful) point Likert scale, participants rated the Dominican speaker’s statements’
truthfulness as averaging 2.95 (SD = .75) and the European speaker’s statements’ truthfulness as
averaging 3.06 (SD = .69).
A paired samples t-test was utilized to assess whether people found the European
accented speaker to be more likely to be true than the Dominican accented speaker. We failed to
find a significant difference t(20) = -.67, p = .52.
Discussion
The purpose of this senior project was to explore whether people’s perception of the
truthfulness of statements would be influenced by the type of Spanish accent a speaker had.
Although the Dominican-speaker’s statements were found to be true less frequently that the
European-speaker’s statements. Contrary to my hypothesis, this difference was not large enough
to be reliable. Similarly, when asked to rate how likely it was that the statements were true,
participants rated the likelihood that the Dominican speaker’s statements were true as lower than
the likelihood that the European speaker’s statements were true. However, once again the
difference was not large enough to be reliable. In both cases, the speaker from Spain was trusted
more than the speaker from DR which helps support my hypothesis even though the results were
not significant. Only 21 participants were included in the current study. Given that the responses
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differed in the predicted pattern, a larger sample might have yielded significant results. For
future research, using a bigger sample size may prove helpful.
After completing the experiment, participants asked whether they noticed anything
particular about the statements. Though the participants’ responses varied, a common response
was that they could not understand some of the speakers’ statements. One participant specifically
said “I could not understand the Asian speaker.” Though each statement was played twice,
participants’ still asked for certain statements to be replayed (primarily statements made by the
Dominican speaker). The Dominican speaker did have a thicker accent than the speaker from
Spain so clarity could have possibly been an issue.
Another potential flaw of the current study was our choice of statements. Many
of our statements were historic. Participants who knew that some statements were true would not
be influenced by the speaker’s accent. Conversely, some statements sounded impossible.
Participants were likely to say these statements were untrue regardless of the speaker’s accent as
well. A way to avoid this problem would be to include autobiographical statements. The
participants would be unable to use their prior knowledge to assess the truthfulness of these
statements.
Using more accents from both Europe and Latin America (Spanish and French
from Spain and France vs. Spanish and French from DR and Haiti) could also be helpful.
Assuring that the speakers’ accents are on the same level regarding clarity would be a good idea
as well. This experiment showed that there could possibly be a difference in people’s judgments
of accents on truthfulness/ reliability. For future research, this can be retested and previous
research has shown that people judge attractiveness based off accents as well so that is also
something that can be tested for.
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References
Ahn, J. (2011). The effect of accents on cognitive load and achievement: The relationship
between students' accent perception and accented voice instructions in students'
achievement Available from PsycINFO. (871544367; 2011-99090-050). Retrieved from
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Carlson, H. K., & McHenry, M. A. (2006). Effect of accent and dialect on employability.
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Appendix
20 statements played.
1. It is possible for twins to be born up to 5 days apart.
2. There are more Chinese restaurants in the US than McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, and
Wendy’s combined.
3. In Mexico, artists can pay taxes with their art work
4. A woman sold a chicken nugget on eBay for $8,100 because it looked like George
Washington.
5. More salt is used for de-icing roads than for human consumption
6. The oldest condoms ever found date back to the 1640s and they were made from animal
and fish intestines.
7. Maine is the closest US state to Africa
8. The Romans used to clean and whiten their teeth with urine
9. Nintendo was originally a trading car company.
10. The US president must pay for their own meals.
11. George Washington died on December 14, 1799
12. There is only one country between North Korea and Norway
13. There are more stars in space than there are grains of sand on every beach in the world.
14. Camels can hold a grudge and wait for the opportunity to take revenge
15. Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn
16. Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire
17. Vin Diesel broke into a theatre in New York with his brother when he was 7 to vandalize
it. Instead of calling the police, the theater’s artistic director offered him a role in an
upcoming show which started Vin’s acting career
18. Everyone has a unique tongue print, just like finger prints.
19. Armadillos almost always give birth to quadruplets
20. For every human on Earth there are 1.6 million ants