You Eat How You Speak
Location
FA 202
Department
Psychology
Abstract
Research has shown that people prefer someone who sounds like them or has cultural similarities (Kinzler, Shutts, DeJesus, & Spelke, 2009). Furthermore, studies examining differences between monolingual and multilingual speakers have shown that there are some advantages to being multilingual such as better letter proficiency and executive control functioning (Patra & Bose, 2019). The current study examines the influence of a speaker’s accent and whether a participant is mono- or multi-lingual on their ratings on a food item. Participants will be asked to listen to an audio recording of a description of a traditional Mexican dish. The audio will be identical for both recordings, however, in one condition the speaker will have an accent whereas in the other condition, the speaker will not. The participants' language status (mono versus multi-lingual) will be determined by their response to some demographic questions. Participants will then be asked to fill out a favorability rating scale (e.g., favorability, how appetizing, how willing to try it, how much they are willing to pay and so forth) regarding the menu item. We hypothesize that overall, the dish will be rated more favorably in the accent situation. It is hypothesized that participants who are multilingual will rate the dish more favorably when they listen to the audio with an accent versus listening to the one without. The data will be analyzed with a 2 (Multilingual versus monolingual) by 2 (Accent versus No Accent) between participants ANOVA on the aggregated favorability ratings. The results from this study have the potential of showing the influence of accents, especially in terms of consumer psychology and marketing products.
Faculty Sponsor
Amanda Dykema-Engblade, Northeastern Illinois University
You Eat How You Speak
FA 202
Research has shown that people prefer someone who sounds like them or has cultural similarities (Kinzler, Shutts, DeJesus, & Spelke, 2009). Furthermore, studies examining differences between monolingual and multilingual speakers have shown that there are some advantages to being multilingual such as better letter proficiency and executive control functioning (Patra & Bose, 2019). The current study examines the influence of a speaker’s accent and whether a participant is mono- or multi-lingual on their ratings on a food item. Participants will be asked to listen to an audio recording of a description of a traditional Mexican dish. The audio will be identical for both recordings, however, in one condition the speaker will have an accent whereas in the other condition, the speaker will not. The participants' language status (mono versus multi-lingual) will be determined by their response to some demographic questions. Participants will then be asked to fill out a favorability rating scale (e.g., favorability, how appetizing, how willing to try it, how much they are willing to pay and so forth) regarding the menu item. We hypothesize that overall, the dish will be rated more favorably in the accent situation. It is hypothesized that participants who are multilingual will rate the dish more favorably when they listen to the audio with an accent versus listening to the one without. The data will be analyzed with a 2 (Multilingual versus monolingual) by 2 (Accent versus No Accent) between participants ANOVA on the aggregated favorability ratings. The results from this study have the potential of showing the influence of accents, especially in terms of consumer psychology and marketing products.