Apologies in Advance: Using Speaker-Based Disarmer Strategies to Reduce Prejudiced Reactions to German-Accented English at Job Interviews
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2024
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en
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Although researchers have established the presence of accent-based discrimination, few studies focus on speaker-based solutions. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of two disarmer strategies on listeners' perceptions, considering the speakers' degree of accentedness and the listeners' mother tongue. An experiment with a 2x3x3 between-subjects design was conducted with German, Dutch, and Scandinavian participants (N = 811). Participants were asked to rate a job application video of a slightly or strongly German-accented speaker who either apologised for her accent, addressed the intention to be comprehensible, or used no disarmer strategy. The speakers were rated on comprehensibility, status, competence, likeability, dynamism, and hirability. Compared to no disarmer strategy, the 'show effort' strategy resulted in higher ratings on all variables, and the apology strategy increased listeners' status and likeability perceptions. These effects were mediated by comprehensibility. Thus, non-native speakers can use the show effort strategy to reduce bias during job applications.
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