How accent and gender influence perceptions of competence and warmth in the medical profession

Previous research has shown that we evaluate social categories differently based on the two fundamental dimensions of competence and warmth. Findings indicate that doctors, men and standard accents are perceived as more competent, while nurses, women and regional accents are perceived as warmer. In a short experiment manipulating gender (man; woman), occupation (doctor; nurse) and accent (Standard British English; regional accent), participants rated the targets on perceived competence, warmth and status. The main results showed that doctors were rated as more competent providing they spoke using Standard British English, and warmer, as long as they spoke with a regional accent. This poses a potential problem, as doctors need to be perceived as competent in their diagnoses and treatment decisions, but also warm in their communication of important and sensitive information. The implications of these findings are discussed in order to highlight the importance of using multiple social categories to represent the complexity of everyday interactions

Who said what ... and how?: on the influence of pronunciation on social categorization

In the social world, one not only sees people, one also hears them speaking. Features of the language (e.g., the accent) convey important information about the speaker. In the context of this dissertation, three projects were designed to test the impact of accents on the perception, categorisation and evaluation of persons. The first project investigated the influence of accent presence on the job interview outcome. It was found that targets speaking with a German dialect accent were highly discriminated against whereas those speaking with a French accent were evaluated as positively as standard German speakers. The second project investigated social categorization based on ethnicity by varying the presentation modality (i.e., only visual, only auditory or both visual and auditory). The results showed that not only the look (visual cues) but also the accent (auditory cues) of a person plays an important role in how a given person is categorized. Moreover ethnicity seemed to be presented most effectively through auditory cues (i.e., accent). The third project examined the outcome of cross categorization based on gender and ethnicity while varying the presentation modality. More precisely, we varied presentation of gender and ethnicity through either only auditory, or only visual, or auditory and visual cues together. Results suggested that gender, though being a very salient and important category, is not always the determining factor for social categorization. And again, ethnicity was conveyed greatly through auditory presentation whereas gender was equally well presented with visual and auditory cues. Overall, all three projects showed that in psychological processes (e.g., social perception and categorization) as well as in everyday life, accents (i.e., language) play a central role

The spectre of the political in contemporary philosophy

Ovaj rad nastoji tematizirati temeljne pojmove suvremene političke filozofije s ciljem kritičke ocjene današnjeg svjetskog ustroja. Liberalna demokracija današnje postmoderne u svojoj bahatosti preuzima monopol na promišljanje i potpuno isključuje politiku kao važnu kategoriju u spoznaji stvarnosti. Na djelu je svojevrsni Denkverbot – zabrana mišljenja koja dovodi do nemogućnosti bilo kakve promjene političkog poretka. Započevši s opisom stanja takvog postmodernog, globalnog svijeta i njegove de-politizanosti, rad se kritički osvrće na isti te predlaže mogućnost promjene kroz 're-afirmaciju' politike i okretanje utopiji koja preostaje jedina opcija. Kroz autore suvremene političke filozofije i teorije, poput Žižeka, Badioua, Hardta i Negrija, te konačno Derridae - nastoji se na vraćanju smisla političkog u filozofijski diskurs. Zaključivši da je jedina relevantna filozofija danas upravo prevratnička filozofija prakse – pošto je i najvažnija funkcija filozofa kao intelektualca danas upravo društveno angažirano djelovanje koje pridonosi boljitku ne samo vlastite zajednice nego i čovječanstva u cjelini – predlaže se uspostava metapolitike kao čiste djelatnosti lišene svakog politikanstva, kao revolucije humanosti i solidarnosti kroz Mnoštvo kao amblem žudnje za boljim i pravednijim svijetom. A kao alternativu postojećem svijetu ovaj rad predlaže 'osvajanje Tvrđave Amerike' i ponovno tematiziranje Marxa kroz analizu najčešće mu upućenih prigovora. Ta retematizacija je zapravo pitanje kamo komunizam, kao vječnu ideju, odvesti danas, ako kao osnovnu filozofsku zadaću pretpostavimo pronalazak novog oblika postojanja te komunističke hipoteze. Ako se i radi o sablasti, kako kaže Derrida, ona nam ipak može pomoći u vraćanju smislenosti suvremenom, visokoglobaliziranom, postmodernom svijetu – dati nam nadu u bolje i pravednije sutra

The spectre of the political in contemporary philosophy

Ovaj rad nastoji tematizirati temeljne pojmove suvremene političke filozofije s ciljem kritičke ocjene današnjeg svjetskog ustroja. Liberalna demokracija današnje postmoderne u svojoj bahatosti preuzima monopol na promišljanje i potpuno isključuje politiku kao važnu kategoriju u spoznaji stvarnosti. Na djelu je svojevrsni Denkverbot – zabrana mišljenja koja dovodi do nemogućnosti bilo kakve promjene političkog poretka. Započevši s opisom stanja takvog postmodernog, globalnog svijeta i njegove de-politizanosti, rad se kritički osvrće na isti te predlaže mogućnost promjene kroz 're-afirmaciju' politike i okretanje utopiji koja preostaje jedina opcija. Kroz autore suvremene političke filozofije i teorije, poput Žižeka, Badioua, Hardta i Negrija, te konačno Derridae - nastoji se na vraćanju smisla političkog u filozofijski diskurs. Zaključivši da je jedina relevantna filozofija danas upravo prevratnička filozofija prakse – pošto je i najvažnija funkcija filozofa kao intelektualca danas upravo društveno angažirano djelovanje koje pridonosi boljitku ne samo vlastite zajednice nego i čovječanstva u cjelini – predlaže se uspostava metapolitike kao čiste djelatnosti lišene svakog politikanstva, kao revolucije humanosti i solidarnosti kroz Mnoštvo kao amblem žudnje za boljim i pravednijim svijetom. A kao alternativu postojećem svijetu ovaj rad predlaže 'osvajanje Tvrđave Amerike' i ponovno tematiziranje Marxa kroz analizu najčešće mu upućenih prigovora. Ta retematizacija je zapravo pitanje kamo komunizam, kao vječnu ideju, odvesti danas, ako kao osnovnu filozofsku zadaću pretpostavimo pronalazak novog oblika postojanja te komunističke hipoteze. Ako se i radi o sablasti, kako kaže Derrida, ona nam ipak može pomoći u vraćanju smislenosti suvremenom, visokoglobaliziranom, postmodernom svijetu – dati nam nadu u bolje i pravednije sutra

Do people remember what is prototypical?:The role of accent-religion intersectionality for individual and category memory

Evidence suggests that accents can be typically more powerful in activating ethnicity categorization than appearance. Concurrently, some social categories, such as ethnicity, can be linked with other categories, such as religion. We investigate how people categorize those who belong to a (mis)matching pair of categories? In the present study we investigated Germans’ categorization of women either wearing a headscarf (Muslim religious symbol), or not, and speaking either standard German or German with an Arabic accent. The “Who Said What?” paradigm and multinomial modelling yielded that category memory, indicative of subtyping, was best for non-prototypical targets (i.e., headscarf and standard German accent, no headscarf and Arabic accent). In contrast, ingroup targets (no headscarf and standard German accent) were individually remembered better than all other targets, whereas non-prototypical targets (no-headscarf and Arabic accent) were not remembered individually at all. These findings are discussed in terms of intersectionality and category prototypicality

Toward a Century of Language Attitudes Research:Looking Back and Moving Forward

The study of language attitudes is concerned with the social meanings people assign to language and its users. With roots in social psychology nearly a century ago, language attitudes research spans several academic disciplines and draws on diverse methodological approaches. In an attempt to integrate this work and traverse disciplinary boundaries and methodological proclivities, we propose that language attitudes—as a unified field—can be organized into five distinct—yet interdependent and complementary—lines of research: documentation, explanation, development, consequences, and change. After highlighting some of the key findings that have emerged from each area, we discuss several opportunities and challenges for future research

Communicating Between Groups, Communicating About Groups

This chapter provides a selective overview of some of the most relevant aspects of intergroup communication. We first introduce the topic by discussing the relationship between intergroup communication and social identity. In the second part, we then cover three language strategies (category labels, language abstraction, and metaphors) that different groups can adopt when communicating between and about groups. Category labels reveal social meaning well beyond mere classification, by triggering affective reactions and stereotyping, whereas language abstraction and metaphors play a central role in establishing and maintaining stereotypes and intergroup relationships. In the third part, we directly address specific social groups, including salient and relatively unambiguous social categories (i.e., gender and race) as well as more fluid categories (i.e., regional and social background as well as sexual orientation). The chapter provides a broad overview of linguistic strategies and of their specific use with selected social categories, together with suggestions for the development of future research and theorizing

Modelling health care customer satisfaction: evidence from Serbia

Customer loyalty, with satisfaction of customers as its main precondition, has long been regarded as an overarching goal of service businesses. With the proliferation of health care providers, which brought about rising competitive pressures on the market, the issue of how to satisfy and keep patients has been attracting increasing attention of researchers and health care management. Therefore, this study aims to examine the antecedents of patient satisfaction and its direct and mediated impact on patients’ behavioural intentions in thus far under-studied context of emerging economy’s health care system. The study has been conducted in a primary health care setting, on a convenience sample of 300 patients, by means of structured questionnaire. The application of structural equation modelling (SEM) revealed direct impact of health care service quality on patient satisfaction and its mediated impact on satisfaction, via perceived value of health care services. In addition to direct influence of satisfaction on patients’ behavioural intentions, its total effect on positive intentions of patients is increased by the impact of patient commitment to a health care provider, which, as evidenced by this study’s findings, increases with patient’s rising trust into a health care provider. Implications for theory and practice are discussed and further research directions are provided

When voice signals nationality and sexual orientation:Speakers’ self-perceptions and perceived stigmatization

Research has shown that individuals speaking low-prestige language varieties are often negatively evaluated and stigmatized by others. However, less is known about how speakers of such language varieties perceive their own speech. Here, we examined self-perceptions and perceived stigma of speakers who belong to multiple social categories signaled by auditory cues. Specifically, we examined beliefs of sexual minority and heterosexual male speakers who were either British nationals (native English speakers) or foreigners living in the UK (non-native English speakers). British speakers believed their voices cue their nationality more than foreigners. Heterosexuals believed their voices reveal their sexual orientation, but only when they self-perceived as sounding masculine. Sexual minority and foreign speakers felt more stigmatized because of the way they sound than did heterosexual and British speakers, respectively. These findings have implications for intergroup communication and voice-based stigmatization literature

Competent and warm?:how mismatching appearance and accent influence first impressions

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