The Influence of Ethnocentrism on Trait Attribution Perceptions towards Standard American, Foreign and Machine Accents

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2020

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The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of ethnocentrism on American-English speakers' ratings of standard American, foreign, and computer-synthesized accents on the task and social dimension of trait attributions. The 351 MTurk participants were asked to listen to nine accents separately and consequently fill out the measure for perceptions of trait attributions (task and social dimensions) and perceived voice impressions. This was followed by the generalized ethnocentrism scale and a demographic questionnaire. The results indicate that in general American-English speakers rate the standard American accent higher on the task and social dimensions of trait attributions than a low prestige foreign, followed by computer-synthesized accents. Secondly, the findings indicate that as American-English speakers' ethnocentric tendencies increase, the computer-synthesized accent is increasingly perceived more positively than a low prestige foreign accent on the task and social dimensions of trait attributions. These results highlight the role of high levels of ethnocentrism on perceptions of foreign accents, which is perceived significantly less positive than machine accents. As previous notions of in-group favoritism among humans are challenged in our increasingly technological world, future research needs to engage in theoretical and ethical implications of communication with intelligent machines.

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Communication, Computer-synthesized Voice, Ethnocentrism, Foreign Accent, Perceptions, Standard Accent, Trait Attributions

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82 pages

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