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Racial stereotypes and expectations can impact the way we communicate and understand others, according to UBC research. The new study, published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, highlights how non-verbal "social cues" - such as photographs of Chinese Canadians - can affect how we comprehend speech.
"This research brings to light our internal biases, and the role of experience and stereotypes, in how we listen to and hear each other," says Molly Babel, the paper's lead author and an assistant professor with UBC's Department of Linguistics.
One of the study's tasks involved participants from the UBC community transcribing pre-recorded sentences amid background static. The sentences were recorded by 12 native speakers of Canadian English. Half of the speakers self-identified as White, and the other half self-identified as Chinese. All speakers were born and raised in Richmond, B.C., which is south of Vancouver.
The pre-recorded sentences were accompanied by either black and white photos of the speakers, or by an image of three crosses. Overall, listeners found the Chinese Canadians more difficult to understand than the White Canadians - but only when they were made aware that the speaker was Chinese Canadian due to the photo prompt.
Participants were also asked to rate the strength of the accents of the speakers. They were asked to listen to two sentences from each speaker - one accompanied by the speaker's photo, the other by an image of crosses. "Once participants were aware that they were listening to a White Canadian, suddenly the candidate was perceived as having less of a foreign accent and sounding more like a native speaker of Canadian English," says Babel.
"It tells us as listeners that we need to be sensitive about the stereotypes that we carry," notes Jamie Russell, the study's co-author who was an undergraduate honours student in UBC's Department of Linguistics during the project.
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-racial-stereotypes-impact.html
[Abstract]: http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/137/5/10.1121/1.4919317
[Source]: http://news.ubc.ca/2015/05/26/how-racial-stereotypes-impact-the-way-we-communicate/
[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @06:55AM
I don't look at people when I communicate, because I want to concentrate on the words spoken and not be distracted by personal appearances. For some strange reason which I can only assume is a result of cultural prejudice, everyone around me calls me aloof, dismissive, and insincere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @07:20AM
Often doing what others deem to be ethically good requires doing what you think is ethically bad. Big or small that choice is never easy or satisfying.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @07:29AM
Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could
Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday May 29 2015, @08:13AM
Unfortunately the average human has a lots of this non verbal communication. I personally dislike two channels of possibly conflicting information, but it's a good idea to be able to decode them. Especially with the other sex.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @02:05PM
Why especially with the other sex? What if you're not heterosexual?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @04:26PM
Then when dealing with the same sex obviously. Are you so dumb that you can't understand what the GP meant, or just so pedantic that you can't help but be a stupid dick?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Marand on Friday May 29 2015, @08:55AM
I don't look at people when I communicate, because I want to concentrate on the words spoken and not be distracted by personal appearances. For some strange reason which I can only assume is a result of cultural prejudice, everyone around me calls me aloof, dismissive, and insincere.
That's probably because the person talking believes that what they're saying is more important than anything else occurring at the same time, so your apparent inattentiveness is insulting. We speak with the expectation of being noticed and listened to, and eye contact is used as an indication of attentiveness. If you're looking at something else, for whatever reason, it's treated as a nonverbal cue that you don't give a fuck about what that person is saying. There is probably some logic to this, because by looking elsewhere you're missing nonverbal cues from that person, such as facial expressions and changes in posture that accompany the speech.
I can understand what you mean, though. I don't avoid eye contact, but I also don't go out of my way to make eye contact in discussions either, especially if the person is asking a question. I find it easier to focus on the question and my answer if I'm not focusing my gaze on anything specific. (I tend to look at the ceiling when thinking out a problem, for example)
It's situational: sometimes you can get away with dropping eye contact to focus, and other times you can't. Some people get awkward if they're watched, some are indifferent, and still others want to be the focus of all attention and need to be watched every time they open their mouths. You can usually work out each type and adjust to it.
Like practically everything else, it's about knowing your "audience" and modifying presentation accordingly.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday May 29 2015, @03:28PM
This reminds me of the situation where there is a group of people talking and everyone thinks of an anecdote they want to add. They think they are being polite by raising a hand to indicate they want to speak next, so others don't interrupt first... but all they are indicate is they have stopped listening to the speaker and are only thinking about their anecdote.
When I realized I was doing this too even when I don't make any cues that I have something to add... I stopped thinking about what I was going to say in reply and focused on the person speaking.
The result is that sometimes after someone speaks, often I have nothing to immediately reply with and that dreaded silence overcomes a conversation for a few moments while I gather my thoughts, and everyone fears the silence. Other times I will have thought of something but it was gone because I was not focusing solely on what I was going to say; if it was important, it will return. Other times when there is a group of people, I don't get a turn since everyone else was so focused on what they were going to say that they jumped on it like the buzzer on Jeopardy.
Some people might think I am an introvert or anti-social due to this... To the point where they think I am not paying attention because I don't snap back with a witty retort right away. But unlike everyone else I am actually listening. And when I do have a response, it is well thought out.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday May 29 2015, @03:30PM
Danny Ocean: Don't look at the floor, he will know you are lying... and don't look at the ceiling because he will know you don't know the answer.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday May 29 2015, @03:18PM
Or perhaps you have trouble hearing and need to look into a person's mouth to help interpret. I find this helps me greatly, and if we are standing far enough away, the other person might think I am looking at their face instead of creepily staring at their mouth.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh