1. It's Not What You Say...
This article was originally published on the Acclaro blog.
Category: Global Trends
...but how you say it, apparently. If you have a foreign accent, it is harder for native speakers
to understand what you are saying and they are less likely to find what the person says as
truthful, researchers found in a study (pdf) conducted by the University of Chicago last month,
with funding from the National Science Foundation.
“They misattribute the difficulty of understanding the speech to the truthfulness of the
statements," explained Boaz Keysar, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago and
an expert on communication.
Photo credit: timparkinson
How did they find this out?
American participants were asked to judge the truthfulness of trivia statements by native or
non-native speakers of English, such as, “A giraffe can go without water longer than a camel
can.” The purpose was to test the impact of accent on credibility.
To minimize the effect on simply prejudice, researchers told listeners that the information in the
statements was prepared for the speakers, and was not based on the speakers’ own knowledge.
Despite knowing the speakers were reciting from a script, the participants judged as less
truthful the statements coming from people with foreign accents.
Page 1: It's Not What You Say... Copyright © Acclaro 2012

2. On a truthfulness scale prepared for the experiment, the participants gave native speakers a
score of 7.5, people with mild accents a score of 6.95 and people with heavy accents a score of
6.84. The severity of a person’s accent also affected the score; statements made by speakers
with heavier accents were rated as less truthful than those with milder accents.
In another experiment, researchers told the subjects about the study to see if awareness
reduces the impact. It did have some effect: participants rated statements with mild accent just
as truthful as statements by native speakers, but they still rated heavily accented statements as
less truthful.
We always knew that accent is a big factor that influences people’s perception of foreigners in a
society, but its insidious impact on credibility is a new finding, a researcher noted.
Non-native job seekers, eyewitnesses, reporters or people taking calls in foreign call centers are
some of the people to which this new insight might apply. If they have a moderate to heavy
accent, they'll have a harder time being perceived as truthful, concluded Shiri Lev-Ari, lead
author of "Why Don’t We Believe Non-native Speakers? The Influence of Accent on Credibility."
About Acclaro: Acclaro is an international translation and localization company that
helps the world’s leading brands succeed across cultures. We translate websites,
marketing campaigns, documents and software to give clients an authentic voice in
key language markets.
North America: 1-866-468-5106 Worldwide: +1-914-468-0222
www.acclaro.com sales@acclaro.com
Page 2: It's Not What You Say... Copyright © Acclaro 2012