Perspective-taking; its effectiveness in improving listeners’ attitudes towards speakers with a regional accent.
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2025-06-27
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en
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This study examined whether a perspective-taking intervention could reduce negative attitudes toward speakers with regional Dutch accents, focusing on the Brabants accent. In a between-subjects experiment, 253 native Dutch participants listened to a speaker with either a weak or moderate Brabants accent and were assigned to either a perspective-taking or control condition. They rated the speaker on comprehensibility and three attitude dimensions: warmth, dynamism, and superiority. The intervention improved social evaluations, particularly on superiority, but did not affect comprehensibility. Contrary to expectations, its effects were not influenced by accent strength or familiarity, suggesting the benefits of perspective-taking are robust across these factors. Accent strength influenced competence-related evaluations, while warmth appeared more stable—possibly due to positive stereotypes of the Brabants accent. These findings show that empathy-based interventions can improve attitudes even toward in-group regional variation, contributing to research on reducing subtle, language-based biases.
Keywords: perspective-taking, regional accent, Brabants, attitudes, comprehensibility, familiarity.
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