Familiarity Determines Whether Accent Affects Attitudes and Behaviors of the Listener

Abstract

Previous research found that accents cause the listener to exhibit prejudice toward the speaker. The present study tested whether the familiarity of the listener and speaker moderated this effect. Study 1 tested this question in a simulated recruit scenario and found that participants were less likely to recruit candidates with an accent, but this effect existed only when the candidate was a stranger to the interviewer, not when the candidate was an acquaintance. Study 2 retested this question in a scenario of talking one-on-one and also found that the effect of accent existed only when they were strangers, not when they were acquaintances. Both studies suggested that the effect of accent on the attitude and behavior of the listener vanished when the speaker and listener were familiar with each other. This work offers insights for understanding the effect of accent on social interaction from the perspective of the familiarity of the speaker and listener and reveals the moderated role of familiarity in the dynamic of the effect of accent.

Keywords

• accent
• familiarity
• stranger
• acquaintance