The Impact of Prejudice Control on the Perceptions that Dutch Listeners Have of German-Accented English at Job Interviews.

Abstract

As a result of globalisation, multinational organisations are increasingly opting for English as their common corporate language. However, accent-based discrimination can lead to, amongst others, negative hiring recommendations of non-native speakers of English at job interviews. To date, little attention has been given to interventions that might reduce such negative biases. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of introducing a pre-stimulus prejudice control text in a job interview setting. An experimental study with a 2x2 between-subjects design was conducted in which Dutch participants (N = 89) were asked to rate a recording of either a native British English-accented speaker or a non-native German-accented speaker on their intelligibility, comprehensibility, hirability, status, and competence. Results showed that the native speaker was perceived more positively than the non-native speaker in terms of competence, hirability and status. The effect on competence disappeared with the implementation of the prejudice control text.