New research suggests that racial stereotypes impact the way people communicate with each other, according to a recent study.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia found that non-verbal social cues affect how people comprehend speech based on racial stereotypes and expectations.
"This research brings to light our internal biases, and the role of experience and stereotypes, in how we listen to and hear each other," Molly Babel, the paper's lead author and an assistant professor with UBC's Department of Linguistics, said in a statement.
For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from the University of British Columbia 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.
These sentences were paired with "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.
Study participants were also asked to rate the strength of the accents of the speakers on tape.
"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," Babel said.
Jamie Russell, co-author of the study, said the findings shows that people "need to be sensitive about the stereotypes that [they] carry."
The findings are detailed in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
