ECREA16-Abstract

522

Thursday, November 10

1 6 : 3 0 – 1 8 : 0 0

PP 203

The Effects of Dialect on the Evaluation of Politicians

C. Vögele

, M. Bachl

University of Hohenheim, Department of Communication, Stuttgart, Germany

Human perception of speakers is strongly influenced by language. Regional dialects are one of the most noticeable characteristics of spoken language (Car‑

gile & Bradac, 2001, Communication Yearbook). Politicians present themselves and their political programs as speakers, for example in speeches or radio/

television interviews. Yet little is known about the effects of language characteristics on the perception of politicians. In local and regional elections, re‑

gional dialects seem especially relevant. Both favorable and unfavorable consequences may occur for a politician who speaks a regional dialect: On the one

hand, speaking dialect has been shown to negatively influence the perception of a speaker’s qualities such as status, dynamism or solidarity (Fuertes et al.,

2012, Eur. J. Soc. Psychol., for a meta-analysis). On the other hand, speaking the local dialect signals proximity and approachability to the local electorate

(Giles, 1973, Anthropological Linguistics). Sociolinguistics suggest that the direction of the effect on the speaker’s evaluation is not unconditional, but

depends on the listeners’ attitude toward the dialect (Cargile & Bradac, 2001). Based on the literature, we propose a model in which the effect of dialect

(as opposed to standard language) on the evaluation of a politician is mediated through liking of the voice and comprehensibility of the statement (me‑

diators). The effect of dialect on the mediators is moderated by the attitudes toward the dialect, such that listeners who evaluate the dialect positively

perceive the dialect statement as more pleasant-sounding and comprehensible. In contrast, listeners who dislike the dialect perceive the statement as less

pleasant-sounding and incomprehensible. Thus, we predict that the indirect effects of dialect through voice liking and statement comprehensibility on

the evaluation of the politician’s qualities depend on the listeners’attitude toward the dialect (moderated mediation). We conducted a 1x2 between-sub‑

ject experiment (n = 363, 54% female, age: 39 years [SD=19], 53% speak the regional dialect). A radio interview was manipulated such that the same

speaker spoke the part of the politician once in dialect and once in standard language. Prior to exposure, we measured the participants’ attitudes toward

the regional dialect (AToL-scale, Schoel et al., 2013, J. Lang. Soc. Psychol.). Post exposure, participants rated voice sound, statement comprehensibility, and

the politician’s qualities (overall evaluation, competence, leadership, integrity, sympathy). All constructs were operationalized by multi-item 5-point scales.

The hypothesized conditional indirect effects were found for all outcomes and both mediators (overall evaluation: through sound 0.10, 95%CI [0.04, 0.18],

through comprehensibility 0.23 [0.12, 0.35]; competence: 0.08 [0.03, 0.15], 0.15 [0.08, 0.26]; leadership: 0.12 [0.05, 0.22], 0.12 [0.05, 0.20]; integrity: 0.06

[0.01, 0.12], 0.16 [0.08, 0.12]; sympathy: 0.12 [0.05, 0.22], 0.12 [0.06, 0.23]). In sum, we found that speaking dialect may indeed harm a politician among

voters with unfavorable opinions toward the dialect, because they do not like its sound and find it hard to understand. Positive effects were less pronounced

and evident only among those with very positive attitudes toward the dialect. Our study highlights the potential of language characteristics to influence

voter perceptions and provides a model to better understand such effects.

PP 204

Priming and Personality. How Individual Characteristics Affect the Media Priming Process

S. Paasch-Colberg

Freie Universität berlin, Media and Communication Studies, Berlin, Germany

Modern democracies have undergone substancial social change in the last decades. This also affects peoples’ voting behavior: Political scientists have ob‑

served constantly weakening bonds between voters and political parties since the 1970s (Dalton et al. 1984). By the same token, the number of undecided

voters increases. Especially for these wavering voters, information on current events and issues may thus be decisive. According to the media priming model,

issues high on the media agenda become salient to the recipients, which can affect their later (voting) behavior (Mendelsohn 1996). Empirical research

confirms that priming of political orientations and voting decisions occurs (Sheafer 2008). However, the theoretical model of priming has been challenged.

The ongoing discussion regards the question of how the information processing that explains priming can be described and how individual characteristics

intervene with it. In a democracy, it is crucial to know how citizens process information to come to their vote and how their personality affects this process.

This paper sheds light on these questions from a theoretical as well as an empirical perspective. Most scholars refer to a psychological model of knowledge

activation and accessibility (e. g. Price/Tewksbury 1997) in order to explain priming. This theoretical framework suggests priming to be a short-term effect

that works rather unconsciously. The accessibility perspective has been challenged: For instance, it has been criticized that the characteristics of the psy‑

chological model are inconsistent with the empirical phenomenon of media priming (e. g. Roskos-Ewoldsen et al. 2002: 105–108). Other authors present

findings suggesting that priming effects are based on learning rather than on accessibility of knowledge (Miller/Krosnick 2000; Lenz 2009). Finally, research

on the question of how individual characteristics (such as political interest) moderate priming is inconsistent and sometimes contradictory to the accessibil‑

ity model. We argue that a dual model that differenciates two possible priming effects based on different modes of information processing explains these

apparently contradictory results. Following the theoretical analysis, we present an empirical study of representative survey data and a content analysis

of television news that tested priming effects on the individual vote in the 2009 German national election. In this study, we identified three issues that were

high on the media agenda during the election campaign. Logistic regression models showed that the likelihood to vote for a certain party is influenced

by the voters’ attitudes on these issues as well as the individual issue salience. We interpret these findings as evidence of priming. Finally, we tested how

political interest moderates priming. Results show that for two of the three issues priming did only occur for voters that are interested in politics. Regarding

the third issue, however, priming occurred for politically interested voters as well as for voters without political interest. These results can be interpreted as

a first proof of the existence of two different priming effects: A priming effect based on learning that occurs if voters are politically interested, and a priming

effect based on accessibility that can occur independent from political interest for especially remarkable issues.