When it matters how you pronounce it: The influence of regional accents on job interview outcome

1. Ignazio Ziano Tamara Rakic, Melanie C. Steffens and AmelieMummendey When it matters how you pronounce it: The influence of regional accents on job interview outcome

2. Ifwelisten to Bruce & Young (1986), there are specific and unspecificaspects of face recognition • Butbothaspect can be processedsimultaneously • Identity and gender (Ganel&Goshen-Gottstein, 2002) Ignazio Ziano What can weinfer from voices

3. Some categorical information (i.e., gender and race) can be extractedduring the face encodingprocess • Identity recognition and categorizationinfluenceeachother (Quinn and MacRae, 2011) • Some dimensions (gender, race, identity) are immediately and automaticallyactivated. • Face isimportant, but voice isimportantaswell (Zuckerman et al, 2011) Ignazio Ziano What can weinfer from voices

4. Visualand auditoryrecognition are stronglylinked • Auditorycortexisusedfor silentspeech-reading (Calvert& al, 1997) • Mc Gurkeffect (Mc Gurk, 1976) • Face and voice contribute to identify a familiarspeaker’sidentity (Schweinberger et al, 2007) • Theyboth are central and theyinteract Ignazio Ziano Link betweenvisual and auditoryperception

5. 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 Ignazio Ziano What can weinfer from voices

6. 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 • GermanyHochdeutsch; Francelangued’oil; Italy toscano • Standardization of language correlates with economic development. Ignazio Ziano Language standardization and itsconsequences

7. Ignazio Ziano Italiandialects

8. Ignazio Ziano Germandialects

9. Ignazio Ziano French dialects

10. 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) Ignazio Ziano Language standardization and itsconsequences

11. 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 Ignazio Ziano Language standardization and itsconsequences

12. Social pressure towardsstandardizationisheavy • Everybodyshould be speakingcorrect «standard language» becauseitisbetterforryourown social perception • Dialects and regionalaccentspersistbecause of the strong language-ethnicity bond • Dialects and accents are part of ouridentity Ignazio Ziano Why do dialects persist then?

13. People use differentspeechstrategiesdepending on the context (speechaccomodation) • Dialect with yourgranma • Strong accent with yourchildhod friends • Standard language in university or at work Ignazio Ziano Dialects and regionalaccents in everyday life

14. 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. Ignazio Ziano Dialects and regionalaccents in everyday life

15. 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). Ignazio Ziano Employability

16. 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. Ignazio Ziano Experiment 1 - Participants

17. 6 different speakers • 4 male • German standard accent • Berlin accent • Saxon accent • Bavarian accent • 2 female • German standard accent • Saxon accent Ignazio Ziano Speakers’ accent

18. 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 Ignazio Ziano Materials and procedure - prestudy

19. Theyhad to assess • Competence • Hirability • Socio – intellectual status • Based on • Job description • Leadership role in middle management position • Willinglyvaguenot to confound • The speakers’ answer • Designed to show high competence and social skill Ignazio Ziano The task

20. 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 Ignazio Ziano The scales

21. Preliminary tests about • gender • aesthetic quality of the voice • participants’ regional background • participants’ own indicated use of dialect revealed no influence on hirability. Ignazio Ziano Results

22. 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? Ignazio Ziano Results

23. 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) Ignazio Ziano Experiment 2

24. 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 Ignazio Ziano The speakers

25. 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. Ignazio Ziano The task

26. Regionalaccentsinstead of dialectskeptconfounds to a minimum • Why are accent speakers evaluated more negatively? • Ingroup/outgroup • Failedcompliance to a social norm (speechaccomodation) • Lazinessimpression? Ignazio Ziano Discussion

27. WhywereBavarianshigherrated socio-intellectuallythanotheraccents’ speakers? • Economicprowess of Bavaria? • butwhyweretheynotevaluatedas more competent or more hirableaswell? • Triggeredstereotypes are likely more complicatedthanthat Ignazio Ziano Discussion

28. 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. Ignazio Ziano Discussion

29. 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? Ignazio Ziano Discussion

30. No gender effect? Fiske (1998) accounts that women are generally perceived as less competent than men. Change in stereotyping? Ignazio Ziano Discussion – Gender effect

31. 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? Ignazio Ziano Discussion – Region of origin

32. 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)? Ignazio Ziano Discussion – awareness and weakness