Pragmatic and knowledge range lenience towards foreigners

Sorry, you make less sense to me: The effect of non-native speaker status on metaphor processing

Preconceived assumptions about the speaker have been shown to strongly and automatically influence speech interpretation. This study contributes to previous research by investigating the impact of non-nativeness on perceived metaphor sensibility. To eliminate the effects of speech disfluency, we used exclusively written sentences but introduced their "authors" as having a strong native or non-native accent through a written vignette. The author's language proficiency was never mentioned. Metaphorical sentences featured familiar ("The pictures streamed through her head") and unfamiliar ("The textbooks snored on the desk") verbal metaphors and closely matched literal expressions from a pre-tested database. We also administered a battery of psychological tests to assess whether ratings could be predicted by individual differences. The results revealed that all sentences attributed to the non-native speaker were perceived as less sensical. Incorporating the identity of the non-native speaker also took more effort, as indicated by longer processing and evaluation times. Additionally, while a general bias against non-native speakers emerged even without oral speech, person-based factors played a significant role. Lower ratings of non-native compared to native speakers were largely driven by individuals from less linguistically diverse backgrounds and those with less cognitive reflection. Extraversion and political ideology also modulated ratings in a unique way. The study highlights the impact of preconceived notions about the speaker on sentence processing and the importance of taking interpersonal variation into account.

Does Foreign-Accented Speech Affect Credibility? Evidence from the Illusory-Truth Paradigm

In a pioneering study, Lev-Ari and Keysar (2010) observed that unknown statements are judged less credible when uttered with foreign accent compared to native accent. This finding was interpreted in terms of processing fluency; when intelligibility is reduced, the credibility of the message decreases. Here, we use the illusory truth paradigm to explore how accent affects credibility. In a between-participant design, participants were exposed to unknown statements uttered by native-accented or foreign-accented speakers. After a distractor task, the same statements were presented with new statements, and participants assessed their truthfulness. Truthfulness ratings were higher for repeated statements than for new statements, replicating the illusory truth effect. Contrary to the processing fluency hypothesis, the effect was similar in both the foreign-accented and native-accented speech groups. A new group of participants rated the speakers' voices on various social traits. A negative bias against foreign speakers was observed. However, this negative-bias did not affect truth ratings.The impact of foreign-accented speech on message credibility is discussed in the context of two factors, processing fluency and out-group stereotype activation.

Would you respect a norm if it sounds foreign? Foreign-accented speech affects decision-making processes

Does listening to a foreign-accented speaker bias native speakers' behavior? We investigated whether the accent, i.e., a foreign accent versus a native accent, in which a social norm is presented affects native speakers' decision to respect the norm (Experiments 1 and 2) and the judgement for not respecting it (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we presented 128 native Spanish speakers with new social norms, adapted from the measures imposed by the Spanish Government to fight the Covid-19 pandemic (e.g., 'To avoid the spread of the Covid-19 virus, keep your distance'), whereas in Experiment 2, we presented 240 native Spanish speakers with everyday social norms learned from childhood (e.g., 'Not littering on the street or in public places'), that have an intrinsic cultural and linguistic link. In Experiment 1, the norms were uttered either in a native accent, or in a foreign accent unfamiliar to our participants to avoid stereotypes. In Experiment 2, we added an accent negatively perceived in Spain to assess the role of language attitudes on decision making. Overall, accent did not directly impact participants' final decisions, but it influenced the decision-making process. The factors that seem to underlie this effect are emotionality and language attitudes. These findings add up to the recent Foreign Accent effect observed on moral judgements and further highlight the role of the speaker's identity in decision making.