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: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @06:40AM
FROST PIST containing the word NIGGER will be modded (Score:-1, Troll)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @06:49AM
Was that native Canadian english for the word or are you chinese?
Cause I need to be told what stereo type it falls under.
(Score: 2, Troll) by aristarchus on Friday May 29 2015, @06:47AM
I have no doubt that some will fall prey to racial stereotypes. Such is the lack of cognitive ability among some. But I have to point out, that in the extreme, anyone is capable of the same cognitive abilities as anyone else, given proper training, or more appropriately, education. So we are not all that different. It is only that some of us are not given the same opportunities as others. And of course, and even worse, if those opportunities are not given at an early enough age, the damage may be permanent, and the victim could be condemned to a life in a cognitively limited bubble. Racism is one such bubble. The problem is, that once this has taken hold, there is no way to remove it. Well, there is one way, but that is what they do.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @07:18AM
Your rants are becoming less coherent but more technically wrong. I do not know if a drug intervention or congratulations are in order.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @07:25AM
The glans, or "head" of the penis, is shaped like a mushroom such that on the withdrawing stroke during vaginal intercourse, the penis of the male scrapes residual semen from the interior walls of the female vagina, thus decreasing the likelihood that sperm from a rival male will impregnate the female.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @08:06AM
Racist! Probably a purple racist!
(Score: 2, Disagree) by t-3 on Friday May 29 2015, @07:46AM
I think this is more a symptom of segregation and lack of diversity than anything to do with "cognitive abilities". Most people when exposed and held in close contact to other cultures, find that we're all the same and racism disappears rather quickly.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by mojo chan on Friday May 29 2015, @09:24AM
It's not a lack of cognitive ability, it's mostly a subconscious reaction issue. For example, someone I know was talking about a potential new hire at work and someone mentioned he was wearing a pink shirt, to which he exclaimed "oh God, he's not gay is he?" I know this guy isn't homophobic really, but the reaction is deeply ingrained. It's called a microagression.
I think it is partly due to the way English conversations work. People don't really listen too closely, they just wait for their turn to speak and jump in as soon as possible. Thus the speaker has to think fast and keep talking or someone else will interrupt them. In other cultures that isn't the case, so microagressions are less of an issue (but of course concious discrimination can still be a huge problem).
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @02:03PM
microagression
No. Get that garbage out of here.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tibman on Friday May 29 2015, @02:48PM
This probably shouldn't be modded troll. He's just saying that racism is a form stupidity, lack of education, or delusion. Which is semi-backed-up by the article. If you can understand someone perfectly until you realize they are Chinese and suddenly they can't speak as well then you have projected your perception onto them. The Chinese person didn't suddenly start speaking worse English. You just think they can't speak as well because of your internal preconceptions. If you tore down those preconceptions then you'd realize that this particular Chinese person can speak English well.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday May 29 2015, @03:12PM
I don't agree that there is no way to remove it. If when kids become adults they isolate themselves against interacting with anyone that isnt like them... yeah, they are going to be just as racist as their parents.
But if someone opens their horizons and interacts with people, even old racists assholes can break free.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @04:19PM
Unfortunately its not that easy. I despise racists and the concepts behind bigotry, but even I still find myself having semi-bigoted thoughts, like finding homosexuals gross or not really associating with blacks (and worse). Conceptually I don't have a problem with them, and I don't think those groups should be deprived of their rights, their freedom, or their lives because I don't necessarily like them, but I can't stop those prejudiced thoughts from creeping in no matter how much I correct myself after I have them. I wasn't raised around racists, just in a town with few minorities; if even I have trouble, I can imagine how difficult it would be for somebody who was raised in bigotry to grow up and stop being bigoted.
(Score: 2) by Hawkwind on Friday May 29 2015, @06:25PM
(Score: 2, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday May 29 2015, @06:51AM
the notion that there is a "Canadian English" is laughable.
Consider the term "American English". How to Bostonians, Southerners and California Surfers compare?
There were many Newfoundlanders who I found difficult to understand - that's just one province. "Aboot" is mostly from Ontario.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @06:58AM
In Canadian English we end every sentence with eh, eh? It's the polite way to pronounce a period or full stop, eh?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday May 29 2015, @07:11AM
It's a chopper, baby.
Whose chopper is this?
Zed's.
Who's Zed?
Zed's dead baby. Zed's dead.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @11:35AM
> the notion that there is a "Canadian English" is laughable.
MDC, the idiot who fancies himself expert on everything and absolutely insists on everyone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_English [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @09:49PM
-- I can't be bothered to log in.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday May 29 2015, @06:08PM
Consider the term "American English". How to Bostonians, Southerners and California Surfers compare?
They all call them "french fries." What do you get with your fish across the pond?
(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
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @07:10AM
Let's guess what's going on in people's brains when we do X and then assume we're correct. Now that's rigorous science.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @07:18AM
Decapitation will solve the problem objectively. We know exactly what's going on in people's brains after brain death.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @11:38AM
> Let's guess what's going on in people's brains when we do X and then assume we're correct. Now that's rigorous science.
What, are you one of those fools he thinks he's so pure of thought and mind that he doesn't stereotype?
It doesn't matter what's going on inside their heads, as long as the inputs and outputs are the same. You can call it ubermencontroltheirbrains if you don't want to think of yourself as racist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @12:02PM
What, are you one of those fools he thinks he's so pure of thought and mind that he doesn't stereotype?
Why not respond to what I actually said? That is, this sort of thing is bad science because it relies on subjectivity and assuming that their guess is correct because they cannot think of an alternative possibility. The social 'sciences' typically suffer from this issue.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @08:47AM
Or maybe for apparently native speakers, people are more afraid to admit they don't understand them. I mean, if, as a native, you don't understand a non-native speaker, this is easily excused by the accent you're not used to. On the other hand, if you don't understand a native speaker, the blame will more likely be put on you, since them being natives and you being native, you're supposed to understand them quite well.
So the difference might be less of "This is a non-native, I'm supposed not to understand him", but "that is a native, I'm supposed to understand him; I'll not admit that I don't." Which is ultimately less about racial stereotypes but about fear to admit a (perceived) shortcoming, namely trouble of understanding a person you think you should not have trouble to understand. Racial stereotypes then would enter only in the form of an excuse.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RedBear on Friday May 29 2015, @09:16PM
No. Although that might be a small aspect of this for some individuals, I don't believe that comes close to explaining the bulk of the phenomenon.
What's going on here is relatively simple. What we've been learning for several decades, bit by bit, is that we (and by "we" I mean the imaginary "self" inside our minds that is observing and attempting to interact with the universe around our physical bodies) only perceive our physical universe very dimly, as if through a thick veil or through the branches of a tree filled with leaves fluttering in the wind. When you _think_ you're reading these words, your brain is really only seeing the basic shapes, the places where the image on the screen goes from light to dark. When you're driving down the road, you _think_ you're seeing an almost 200-degree field of vision quite sharply and in full color, but really your brain is only seeing things sharply and in color within a small cone of your central vision, a few degrees in diameter at most. When you are in a room full of people speaking your native language, you _think_ you're hearing all sorts of conversations accurately and completely, but really what your brain is hearing is the "edges" of various sound-patterns that it has gotten used to "mapping" into complete words or even complete sentences. You don't actually _hear_ all of the audio data you think you're hearing, anymore than you actually see all the visual data you think you're seeing.
You see, the brain has absolutely massive amounts of processing power focused entirely on "filling in" all the missing bits and pieces of what we can't perceive in real-time. What we believe we are hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling or feeling at any given time is actually about 99% fake. Made-up. Not real. And quite often it literally doesn't quite match what's actually there. While our perception is quite wonderful and give us an amazing experience of the universe around us, it is not always entirely accurate due largely to the fact that so much information is interpolated from relatively small amounts of data. What's truly amazing is that our interpolated senses are as accurate as they are.
This, incidentally, is why "magic" a.k.a. "sleight of hand" is still so effective on us not just as children but as adults as well. Illusionists take advantage of the rather large gaps in our perception to make us believe something is happening that really isn't. That the coin really just vanished into thin air, or a dove came from nowhere. Fellow illusionists usually can't be fooled, but not because they have superhuman perception. Rather, the illusionist understands how the trick is being performed, and _which_ trick is being performed, and already has a mental map of the tiny, telltale visual signs that give the trick away. But if you take an expert illusionist and have him devise a new trick which purposefully gives off a telltale sign identical to some other trick, even other illusionists can often be fooled, because they aren't really seeing any more information than you or I would be seeing.
So what's happening is that these people in the test really do understand the Caucasian-appearing Canadian speaker better than the Chinese-appearing Canadian speaker (at least after they see what the speaker looks like), because their brain is still applying the correct mapping to the sparse incoming audio data from the Caucasian-appearing speaker. Meanwhile their brain is now applying a different, slightly-incorrect mapping to the same sparse incoming audio data from the Chinese-appearing speakers. The Chinese-appearing speaker quite literally becomes "difficult to understand", even though their speech did not change at all. The next step is learning to get our brains to stop switching to an incorrect mapping in order to try and match a visual stereotype that has no relevance. We already seem to have some basic de-conditioning techniques, such as showing a non-Chinese-appearing Canadian a projected image of themselves as a Chinese-appearing Canadian and letting them watch themselves speak for a while. This could allow the brain to shift into using the same audio mapping for Chinese-appearing and Caucasian-appearing speakers.
You've probably actually experienced something like this (a shifting of a mental map) at some point in your life, if you've ever spent any considerable amount of time listening to people with thick "foreign" accents. At some point, if you listen enough, suddenly something just clicks into place and you find you have no more trouble understanding someone whose speak you couldn't comprehend just five minutes earlier. That's your brain either figuring out the mapping on the fly or applying a previously-learned mapping that "fits" the data better.
This test explains quite well why so many people perceive "foreign-appearing" people as having bad manners, bad speech and various other stereotypical issues, even though an unbiased observer will often say there is no difference between a native-looking person and a foreign-looking person, as long as they don't know what those two people look like.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jimshatt on Friday May 29 2015, @09:29AM
As a result, I listen in a different way to a Chinese person, even though the person is fluent in the language. Because doing so has proved useful in the past. That's just how humans work.
(Score: 2) by jimshatt on Friday May 29 2015, @09:42AM
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @10:15AM
Try using a fake Russian accent. People will still think you unintelligent, but they will fear you. /stereotype humor
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @05:49AM
Thats kinda sad. There is a russian family in my neighborhood and despite being very nice people, they obviously have fewer good friends. I live in a very international neighborhood full of immigrants and expats alike. I think the 'russians are scary' stereotype pushes them in to a very lonely existence that only perpetuates the stereotype by making the russian a creepy outcast person.
(Score: 2) by jcross on Friday May 29 2015, @01:39PM
That's pretty close to what I was thinking, and I think the heuristic will depend on the local demographics. For instance, if say 50% of the local population of "Chinese-looking" people is foreign-born and 50% is native-born, whereas only 5% of the "white-looking" population is foreign-born, the chance that a local person speaks with an accent is 10 times higher if they look Chinese, in which case you need to adjust to interpreting a wider possible range of phonemes. I expect the Native Americans would have shown the same effect when Europeans were the new kids on the block, assuming there were some Europeans who bothered to learn their language.
Side point, though. I wonder why they didn't just use the same speaker or "uniform" set of speakers with different images? Seems like the speaker's actual race is an irrelevant confounding factor in the study, but maybe they were just open to seeing a range of effects.
(Score: 1) by chrysosphinx on Friday May 29 2015, @09:30AM
Stereotypes such as exemplified here led to the development and use of the genophage.
(Score: 1) by Dr Spin on Friday May 29 2015, @09:38AM
Most people say I am the easiest person to understand, but voice recognition systems consistently fail to recognise anything I say.
Who should I hold up a picture of for Android to recognise my voice? A Samsung Galaxy?
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @11:07AM
If you want Android to understand you, you have to look like an android, of course.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Friday May 29 2015, @11:31AM
Being a clean and fairly neutral RP, I've often been complimented on the clarity of my verbal communications by people from all countries and continents. Until I went to Ireland, where we had this remarkable moment of realising that whilst in theory both of us spoke the same language, we understood absolutely *nothing* of what each other was saying. Even pulling a single word out of a whole sentence was a rarity. I was asking for directions, he was misunderstanding me, eventually when I showed an image of where we wanted to go, I got a string of words that was unlike anything I've ever heard before. Asking for clarification, he didn't understand what I was asking, so I did some quizical pointing gestures, which he picked up on. At least he started us in the right direction, but then repeated the spoken directions again, and again, I couldn't understand any of it. So I thanked him and darted off in the first direction he pointed, hoping to find someone I shared a spoken language with.
No attention paid to, or deliberant ignoring of, faces would have changed things either way. He was speaking Cherokee, and I was speaking Xhosa, for all it mattered.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Friday May 29 2015, @02:11PM
Well maybe the person thought you were English and was just being a dick by speaking to you in Gaelic.
I have had a very different experience with language while I lived in Paris for 3 months. By the end of my stay I had picked up enough where I could understand a fair amount but when I talked to people I probably came off as a retarded child as I would have to pause think and eventually respond in very poor French. I did find that trying to communicate with the French in French would go along way even if it was shitty French. Very often early on they would respond back in English to my inquiries but it did require speaking their language in their country. I did however have a rather interesting exchange with a Scott while there.
I was taking some nighttime long exposure photos of Notre Dame de Paris and a large redheaded man with a ZZ Top beard comes up to me. He asked me something in French that I figured meant he was asking if he could use my tripod but he had a very thick Scottish accent. I responded back in English that I really didn't speak French. His response "Bloody good! Finally someone who speaks the fuckin language! I was wantin to know if I could borrow your tripod there as I left mine in Edinburgh." We got to talking about photography and after we were both done he asked
"Do you like Scotch?"
Me:"I don't know I've never had Scotch."
Him: "Do you like Cognac?"
Me: "Yes"
Him: "You'll love scotch. I know a place in the Latin Quarter"
So we wander down to this bar in the Latin quarter, he orders a bottle of single malt scotch and 2 glasses. We drank and shot the breeze until we got kicked out the next morning when the subway started running again.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday May 30 2015, @08:07AM
I won't repeat any stories about my times in France, as they would be found offensive by any french readers.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Monday June 01 2015, @12:14PM
I enjoyed the Irish when I was there and like you did find them to be wonderful people, how can you go wrong with beer drinking sausage eating people. The small bus tour (about a dozen people) I took out into Wicklow was a blast and once the Irish who were on the tour found out I was from Minnesota they immediately asked if I would "Talk like Fargo". So much to my wife's dismay I did and had the whole lot of them busting a gut. She didn't like being embarrassed but I told her that they all thought it was funny and that it doesn't matter because after the day tour was done we would probably never see any of them again. For the most part I found the French to be agreeable but there were a few assholes I ran across but then I wasn't the ugly American tourist, I was living and working there for 3 months, and fit in with their cultural norms, and like I said I really did try to communicate in French.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @10:18AM
One concept in modern practice would throw the whole English-usage aspect of the study into irretrievable chaos: ebonics.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by theluggage on Friday May 29 2015, @10:31AM
Half of the speakers self-identified as White, and the other half self-identified as Chinese
[Actually, Chinese Canadian, non Chinese - from TFP]. One of the major stumbling blocks to this sort of research: of course, ethically, you have to accept the subjects self-identification of their ethnicity. Unfortunately, that leaves you with no solid basis for assuming that their self-identified ethnicity reflects their actual accent or facial features.
but only when they were made aware that the speaker was Chinese Canadian
Checked this in TFP - the intelligibility figures for audio-only are indeed within standard error, while the audio+photo ones are a couple of standard errors apart. Surprising - if there was any genuine difference between their accents you'd expect some sort of effect in the audio-only, with the 'photo' effect showing up as a bias.
If you specifically ask people to identify a difference that isn't there, is it surprising that they'll latch on to whatever evidence you offer them, however slight or irrelevant? Does this actually have any significance in real-life situations?
Actual paper is TLDNR for a quick soylent post, but interesting wrinkle that caught my eye was the ethnic make-up of the 40 trial participants:
(Asian = 14, Asian and Pacific Islander = 2, Asian and White = 4, Black = 1, Pacific Islander = 1, South Asian = 3, White = 15)
Problem with a N=40 trial is that while you might scrape by with 40 data points, you don't get enough of any one ethnic group to dig into that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @01:43PM
[Actually, Chinese Canadian, non Chinese - from TFP]. One of the major stumbling blocks to this sort of research: of course, ethically, you have to accept the subjects self-identification of their ethnicity.
This is debatable at best. Is it really ethical to avoid hurting people's feelings if more accurate results could be used to better society, including the lives of the very people who get upset?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @06:46PM
The ends rarely justify the means. So long as nobody gets hurt, directly or indirectly, its probably fine, but even that can start you down a slippery slope.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Friday May 29 2015, @04:28PM
Should read "[Actually, Chinese Canadian, not Chinese - from TFP]" - i.e. the self-identification is about ethnicity, not nationality.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 29 2015, @03:48PM
but mostly it amuses me. When I lived in Japan I had a Japanese-Canadian girlfriend who didn't speak a lick of Japanese. I spoke it reasonably well, having taken four years of it in college. We would walk into stores together and I would conduct the entire conversation with the salespeople who could not stop acting like they were actually talking to my girlfriend, because she looked utterly Japanese while I looked utterly white. Sometimes I thought they would get whiplash the way they jerked their heads back and forth in astonishment at the Japanese words that were coming out of my mouth instead of hers.
Later I had similar experiences with Chinese in Beijing. I had learned Mandarin at an immersion program in Manchuria, which is where the purest, clearest Mandarin is spoken (it's like the Oxford English of English). Beijingers refused to understand what I was saying until I adopted the Beijing "growl" (the local accent) and broke the spell of non-comprehension; it nearly always put them in stitches. But their faces never did lose the dazed look that betrayed how they didn't fully accept that they could understand me.
I never was offended by it, though, and have always taken it as another way that people can be silly. My wife and I have fun with it, too. She was born in Seoul but grew up in Brooklyn and says "ole" instead of "all." She will speak very slowly like I'm an idiot who can't understand English.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @03:51PM
the lead researcher is Molly Babel.
Really? Babel?
As in tower of Babel?
talk about pre-determination...
(Score: 2) by Ryuugami on Friday May 29 2015, @07:10PM
Haha, nice catch.
Maybe someone should add her to Wikipedia's list of aptronyms [wikipedia.org]...
If a shit storm's on the horizon, it's good to know far enough ahead you can at least bring along an umbrella. - D.Weber
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday May 30 2015, @03:56PM
Once you know who you're listening to, your brain automatically adjusts its codepage so the accent makes sense. That's not the "racial stereotype" they're pushing; it's simply pattern matching by a different route.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.