Accents and Tolerance: Experimental Evidence of Taiwanese in Taiwan versus US

• In Event: Behavioral Effects of Language

Abstract

While we know visual cues such as skin color, religious garments, and orthography can influence outgroup attitudes, does exposure to auditory signals – i.e., accents – induce outgroup intolerance? We argue that even when individuals share a common language, accents identify social boundaries – thus, accentuating ingroup-outgroup distinctions. This may contribute to discriminatory attitudes toward speakers of outgroup accents – even if the speakers are of the same race, practice the same religion, and speak the same language. We find support for this argument with a survey experiment on two samples: (1) the Taiwanese in Taiwan (N=2088) and (2) the Taiwanese in the US (N=1008) – the largest survey of its kind to have ever been administered. In both samples, we manipulate the Mandarin accent. Results suggest the political salience of accents may be limited by contextual factors (e.g., ingroup size). Our findings speak to ethnic politics, language politics, Taiwan studies, and Asian-American politics.

Authors

• Amy H. Liu, University of Texas at Austin

• Jeremy Siow, University of Oxford

• Charles K.S. Wu, University of South Alabama

• Yao-Yuan Yeh, University of St. Thomas