Comments on: There’s something about Johnny Foreigner

By: Sheila Miguez

Sheila Miguez — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:08:41 +0000

Kapitano, I think I forgot to submit my earlier comment where I asked whether there have been similar results for varying volume or static or other auditory qualities of the voice. The concept of ‚Äúprocessing fluency” would seem to imply those results.
I also wonder if a distraction unrelated to the sense modality of this experiment could increase the level of difficulty of processing fluency and cause the same result.
You could control for xenophobia by having subjects listen to speakers from the same region.

By: Kapitano

Kapitano — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:22:55 +0000

So, difficulty in interpreting an accent decreases plausibility? If that’s true, the following might be true:
* Listening to voice through a thunderstorm or a crackly radio would have the same effect.
* People who mumble or speak too quickly would be perceived as less trustworthy.
* The information from the queen of England wouldn’t be trusted if she spoke in Texas.
All possible, but far more likely there’s just a lot of xenophobia about – including in those who think they’re educated enough to be beyond anything like racism.

By: Sheila Miguez

Sheila Miguez — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:58:11 +0000

I also meant to ask whether the subject matter could alter the results. e.g. If a subject matter expert was presenting potential facts in a field that the participants were experts in, does that wash out the result?

By: rita

rita — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:08:15 +0000

Que?

By: Ian Leslie

Ian Leslie — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:49:24 +0000

This suggests to me that anybody speaking with a foreign accent should introduce every proposition with “Brain scans indicate…” thus compensating for their credibility gap.