Stacie L. Patterson Law Blog

The result of a study from The University of Chicago shows that the difficulty people have trying to understand someone speaking with an accent affects how likely we are to believe what that person is telling us.  The experiment was broken down into two parts.  In the first, researchers tested the perceived honesty when trivia statements were made with a native accent compared with a foreign accent.  The second experiment involved trying to determine whether or not subjects could correct for the effect by pointing out how difficulty of processing accented speech could affect perceived honesty.

In the first experiment, participants were made to know that the trivia statements they would be hearing were merely being recited by former test participants.  In other words, the participants realized that the trivia statements stemmed from the experimenter, not the person making the statement.  The participants were then asked to evaluate the various statements on a scale ranging from definitely true to definitely false.  Experiment 1 resulted in participants believing that statements made in their native accent were more believable than those made with a foreign accent.  Further still, the experiment showed that information relayed in a mild accent was more believable than that being relayed by a heavy or thick accent.

The second experiment was identical to the first but focused on the participants trying to correct for the difficulty in processing accented speech.  The participants in this phase of the experiment were asked to rate the difficulty of understanding accented speech and understood that the purpose of the exercise was to find out whether or not the severity of the accent impacted the credibility of the speaker.  The results showed that native accented speakers and those with mild accents were believed more readily than those speaking with a heavy accent.  Those speaking with the heavy accent were much less likely to be believed by participants.  

It would seem that people in general are more likely to believe native speaker because they are easier to understand.  Perhaps attorneys, judges and juries should consider this cognitive effect in the criminal justice system.  

If you are being investigated for a crime, contact attorney, Stacie L. Patterson. (619) 269-8074