Rights statement: This article does not exactly replicate the final version published in the journal Experimental Psychology. It is not a copy of the original published article and is not suitable for citation. Copyright © 2017 Hogrefe Verlag. All rights reserved.
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Competent and warm?
T2 - how mismatching appearance and accent influence first impressions
AU - Hansen, Karolina
AU - Rakić, Tamara
AU - Steffens, Melanie C.
N1 - This article does not exactly replicate the final version published in the journal Experimental Psychology. It is not a copy of the original published article and is not suitable for citation. Copyright © 2017 Hogrefe Verlag. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Most research on ethnicity has focused on visual cues. However, accents are strong social cues that can match or contradict visual cues. We examined understudied reactions to people whose one cue suggests one ethnicity, whereas the other cue contradicts it. In an experiment conducted in Germany, job candidates spoke with an accent either congruent or incongruent with their (German or Turkish) appearance. Based on ethnolinguistic identity theory, we predicted that accents would be strong cues for categorization and evaluation. Based on expectancy violations theory we expected that incongruent targets would be evaluated more extremely than congruent targets. Both predictions were confirmed: Accents strongly influenced perceptions and Turkish-looking German-accented targets were perceived as most competent of all targets (and additionally most warm). The findings show that bringing together visual and auditory information yields a more complete picture of the processes underlying impression formation.
AB - Most research on ethnicity has focused on visual cues. However, accents are strong social cues that can match or contradict visual cues. We examined understudied reactions to people whose one cue suggests one ethnicity, whereas the other cue contradicts it. In an experiment conducted in Germany, job candidates spoke with an accent either congruent or incongruent with their (German or Turkish) appearance. Based on ethnolinguistic identity theory, we predicted that accents would be strong cues for categorization and evaluation. Based on expectancy violations theory we expected that incongruent targets would be evaluated more extremely than congruent targets. Both predictions were confirmed: Accents strongly influenced perceptions and Turkish-looking German-accented targets were perceived as most competent of all targets (and additionally most warm). The findings show that bringing together visual and auditory information yields a more complete picture of the processes underlying impression formation.
KW - nonnative speech
KW - stereotypes
KW - ethnolinguistic identity
KW - expectancy violations
KW - impression formation
KW - person perception
U2 - 10.1027/1618-3169/a000348
DO - 10.1027/1618-3169/a000348
M3 - Journal article
VL - 64
SP - 27
EP - 36
JO - Experimental Psychology
JF - Experimental Psychology
SN - 1618-3169
IS - 1
ER -