Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviour
This paper reports the findings from a multidisciplinary and cross-institutional Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project called ‘Improving Voice Identification Procedures’ (IVIP). People harbour stereotypes about particular accents, and those judgements may be brought with them in...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Communication |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1462013/full |
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| author | Alice Paver David Wright Natalie Braber Nikolas Pautz |
| author_facet | Alice Paver David Wright Natalie Braber Nikolas Pautz |
| author_sort | Alice Paver |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper reports the findings from a multidisciplinary and cross-institutional Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project called ‘Improving Voice Identification Procedures’ (IVIP). People harbour stereotypes about particular accents, and those judgements may be brought with them into the legal domain. Considering the potential consequences of accent judgements by witnesses and jurors, this study examines the relationship between ratings for characteristics and the likelihood of acting in certain criminal and non-criminal ways. 180 participants completed an accent judgement task, rating 10 regionally-accented British voices on a range of traits and behaviours using a wider variety of accents, behaviours and criminal offences than previous research. Results indicate that evaluations of perceived characteristics based on accent translate into evaluations of likely behaviours. Non-standard UK regional accents are generally perceived more negatively than a standard one, but not universally; non-English accents elicited more positive trait and behaviour ratings than English accents. Furthermore, although accents evaluated as low-status were generally more likely to behave criminally according to listeners, this varied according to the type of crime. The discussion explores the forensic implications of the relationships between perceived status and criminality, as well as discussing the significance of perceptions of perpetrators of sexual offences when compared to other offence types. We emphasise the need for nuanced understanding of how accents are evaluated when it comes to different crime types. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-0a18b9ae689545509e7da6fca979f563 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2297-900X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Communication |
| spelling | doaj-art-0a18b9ae689545509e7da6fca979f5632025-08-20T03:01:06ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Communication2297-900X2025-01-01910.3389/fcomm.2024.14620131462013Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviourAlice Paver0David Wright1Natalie Braber2Nikolas Pautz3Phonetics Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United KingdomSchool of Arts and Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United KingdomSchool of Arts and Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United KingdomDepartment of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United KingdomThis paper reports the findings from a multidisciplinary and cross-institutional Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project called ‘Improving Voice Identification Procedures’ (IVIP). People harbour stereotypes about particular accents, and those judgements may be brought with them into the legal domain. Considering the potential consequences of accent judgements by witnesses and jurors, this study examines the relationship between ratings for characteristics and the likelihood of acting in certain criminal and non-criminal ways. 180 participants completed an accent judgement task, rating 10 regionally-accented British voices on a range of traits and behaviours using a wider variety of accents, behaviours and criminal offences than previous research. Results indicate that evaluations of perceived characteristics based on accent translate into evaluations of likely behaviours. Non-standard UK regional accents are generally perceived more negatively than a standard one, but not universally; non-English accents elicited more positive trait and behaviour ratings than English accents. Furthermore, although accents evaluated as low-status were generally more likely to behave criminally according to listeners, this varied according to the type of crime. The discussion explores the forensic implications of the relationships between perceived status and criminality, as well as discussing the significance of perceptions of perpetrators of sexual offences when compared to other offence types. We emphasise the need for nuanced understanding of how accents are evaluated when it comes to different crime types.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1462013/fullforensic linguisticsaccent discriminationaccent judgementsUnited Kingdom accentsforensic phoneticsforensic speech science |
| spellingShingle | Alice Paver David Wright Natalie Braber Nikolas Pautz Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviour Frontiers in Communication forensic linguistics accent discrimination accent judgements United Kingdom accents forensic phonetics forensic speech science |
| title | Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviour |
| title_full | Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviour |
| title_fullStr | Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviour |
| title_full_unstemmed | Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviour |
| title_short | Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviour |
| title_sort | stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviour |
| topic | forensic linguistics accent discrimination accent judgements United Kingdom accents forensic phonetics forensic speech science |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1462013/full |
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