Social consequences of accents: Inferred credibility in the courtroom
Objectives:
Studies have shown that foreign accents affect a speaker’s inferred knowledge of credibility. But we have little information about the cognitive processes and reasoning mechanisms that lead to this outcome (e.g., whether individual accent features activate fast stereotypical categorisations or whether judgments emerge cumulatively over time) or of the individual and contextual factors that moderate it (e.g., listener background and prior exposure, social setting). The goal of this project is to address these issues by examining inferred credibility of foreign accents in a courtroom setting. Using virtual reality to elicit attitudinal responses within information-rich contexts, the project will identify how social and rolelinked stereotypes interact with individual listener factors to constrain how foreign accents are evaluated.
Expected Results:
(i) To show that listeners rely on quick stereotypical categorisations of accents to judge speakers’ credibility; (ii) to demonstrate that these classifications vary by context (e.g., medical malpractice trial vs. sexual assault trial) and speaker role (witness, defendant, accuser); (iii) to demonstrate that evaluations are further moderated by listeners’ prior exposure to foreign accents and psychosocial profile more generally (e.g., social justice orientation).
Supervisor:
Erez Levon
- Host institution: University of Bern (UBERN)
- Location: Bern, Switzerland
Doctoral Candidate:
Haotong Zhao
- Host institution: University of Bern (UBERN)
- Location: Bern, Switzerland
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