1. Suspected Accental Preferences Among Monolingual English Speaking College Students
Rachel Stevens, Janelle L. Farnam, Kim A. Bolduc, Courtney Erdly, Scott Eidelman
Department of Psychological Science, The University of Arkansas
Introduction
Sample
 40 monolingual English speaking college students
 20 males & 20 females
 Age: 18-25
Questionnaires
• Sensation Seeking Scale (SScat)
Procedure
• Independent variables – native english accent and foreign
hispanic accent
• Dependent variables – how the participants rate the bread
samples
• Between-subjects design
• Conditon 1: Native accent with recipe A, then
foreign accent with recipe B
• Condition 2: Foreign accent with recipe A, then
native accent with recipe B
Method
Results
References
Discussion
• Results indicate that there is not any significant accent preference
among English speaking monolingual college students, nor are
there any significant findings of sensation seeking correlated to
accent preference.
• There were also no significant results for comparisons among
“tastiness” for the food item presented when paired with either the
native accent or the Hispanic accent; nor any significance for
prospective recommendation of the food product among the
different pairs.
• However, when comparing the ratings of tastiness between the
native and the foreign accent, results show a trend toward the
foreign accent sample being perceived as more tasty. We
speculate that this is due to the overexposure we experience to
foreign foods, which increases the liking we feel toward other
cultures.
• Food preference appears to be exempt from accent evaluation; it is
possible that our likes and dislikes in regards to food overpower
the origin of the food; the accent that a food is presented in does
not activate cultural biases.
• Another factor that could be an implication of these insignificant
findings are the ages of the speakers of the recordings. The
Hispanic accented speaker was much older than the English
speaker, therefore maturation may have an effect over accent
preference.
• These findings may suggest, even though our results are not
significant, that our sample size could be a prime factor for
insignificance. If the sample size were larger, we would possibly
see a more direct gravitation toward one accent over the other and
possibly some significant findings among the different constructs.
• Individuals make judgments every day, which in turn reinforces
their social preferences. Social preferences are determined by the
evaluation of factors that people use to categorize individuals in
the social world; the three most prominent of these factors are
gender, age, and race.2
• However, previous studies have shown that there are instinctual
preferences in regards to accent in infants as well as in children,
which implies that there are cultural preferences of accent in
adults.2
• These studies have also implicated that in some cases racial
preferences are secondary to accent preference among
monolingual children when presented the choice between
becoming friends with someone of a different race paired with the
same accent, versus someone of a similar race paired a different
accent.2
• More research has shown that in situations where people have to
rely on expertise, they tend to relate expertise with similarity.
Tourists chose to listen to the advisors with native accents instead
of foreign accents.1
• In an experiment testing food preferences of infants, results
suggest that infants use linguistic information to guide their eating
behavior. This was demonstrated when infants reached more
reliably for a food that had previously been endorsed by a speaker
of their own native language.4
• Implications from research suggests that when English speaking
monolingual college students are presented a choice between
their native accent and a foreign Hispanic accent, they will
gravitate towards their native accent; with preference being
measured by ratings of a food product presented with the non-
native accent or native accent.
Main Effect of
sample: One
sample t test
Sensation
Seeking:
Independent
samples t test
Gender:
Univariate linear
model
Tastiness: Paired
samples t test
Prospective
recommendation:
Paired samples t
test
t(39)= 1.275, p=
.21 at the .05 level
t(38)= -.632,
p=.531 at the .05
level
t(38)= .632, p=.531
at the .05 level
t(39)= -1.778,
p=.083 at the .05
level
t(39)= .298, p=.767
at the .05 level
Effects of the Comparative Analyses
Test Value Average 1.5
1(English)
2(Spanish)
Low Sensation Seeking Mean
Score
High Sensation Seeking Mean
Score
Mean Scores: Sensation Seeking M= 1.55 M= 1.65
Test Value Average 1.5
1(English)
2(Spanish)
Male Mean Score Female Mean Score
Mean Scores: Gender M= 1.65 M= 1.55
Sensation Seeking Mean Scores: Independent Samples t test
*High scores indicate higher sensation seeking
*Low scores indicate lower sensation seeking
Gender Mean Scores: Univariate Linear Model
*Test value at 1.5 for preference
*Females tended to lean more towards native accent
1. Dahlback, N. (2007). Similarity is more important than
expertise: Accent effects in speech preferences. CHI 2007
Preceedings-Social influence, 1553-1556. doi: 978-1-1-59593-
593-9/07/004
2. Kinzler, K D., Shutts, K., DeJesus, J., & Spelke, E.S. (2009).
Accent trumps race in guiding social preferences. Social
Cognition, 27, 623-634. doi:10.1521/soco.2009.27.4.623
3. Kinzler, K.D., Corriveau, K.H., & Harris, P.L. (2011). Children’s
selective trust in native accented speakers. Developmental
Science, 14, 106-111.
4. Shutts, K., Kinzler, K.D., McKee, C.B., & Spelke, E.S. (2009).
Social information guides infants’ selection of foods. Journal of
Cognition and Development, 10, 1-17. doi:
10.1080/15248370902966636