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Related Experiment Videos

Children's accent-based inferences depend on geographic background.

Drew Weatherhead1, Katherine S White2, Ori Friedman2

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada.

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|June 16, 2018
PubMed
Summary
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Young children use accents to make social judgments. However, information about a speaker's geographic origin can change these accent-based inferences, especially regarding cultural and friendship preferences.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Social Cognition

Background:

  • Children form impressions of others based on linguistic cues like accents.
  • The influence of geographic background information on children's accent-based social inferences is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how young children's accent-based social inferences are affected by information about speakers' geographic origins.
  • To determine if children use accent to infer cultural and friendship preferences.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments were conducted with 4- to 6-year-old children (N=60 in Exp. 1; N=90 in Exp. 2).
  • Children inferred speakers' cultural and friendship preferences based on accent information.
  • Children's inferences were assessed under conditions varying information about speakers' geographic backgrounds.
Keywords:
AccentAccent-based inferencesGeographic backgroundSocial cognitionSocial inferenceSocial preferences

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Children inferred shared cultural and friendship preferences between speakers with the same accent.
  • This accent-based inference was reduced when children were informed that speakers came from different or the same geographic locations.
  • Children's social preference inferences were modulated by geographic background information.

Conclusions:

  • Young children's accent-based social inferences are contingent on contextual information about geographic background.
  • This study provides novel evidence that children use accent to infer social preferences, demonstrating an early understanding of social categorization.
  • Findings offer insights into the mechanisms underlying children's social reasoning and the development of prejudice.