Competent and Warm? How Mismatching Appearance and Accent Influence First Impressions

Artikel

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

Classification and Topics

• Subject: Akzent ; Erwartung ; Soziale Wahrnehmung ; Ethnizität ; Psychologie ; Sprache

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Hansen, Karolina ; Rakić, Tamara ; Steffens, Melanie C.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Göttingen : Hogrefe
• (when): 2019-08-20

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-91459
• Last update: 06.03.2025, 9:00 AM CET