Does Hearing A Foreign Accent Affect Perception and Decision making? An ERP Investigationg

Abstract

this study examined whether accent has an effect upon trustworthiness when introduced with an unexpected statement about foreign or native culture. This was not just a superficial way of testing, but an accurate scientific study to investigate and measure unconscious patterns in decision- making and perspective mechanisms of humans using event-related potential (ERP). The hypothesis was that unexpected statements in English about British culture are more credible when produced with a British accent than a foreign accent, and reciprocally, statements about Arabic culture are more believable when stated in an Arabic accent than a foreign accent. We predicted that expectedness (expected, unexpected) would result in a modulation of N400 ERP amplitude. Thirteen British native speakers from Bangor University participated in an acceptability judgement task on sentences (true, false) and ERP results were collected from them while listening to statements in British and Arabic accents about British and Arabic culture. The ERP results illustrate that there was an effect of expectedness upon accuracy in both the Arabic and English conditions. Therei was also an effect of culture and accent upon N400 mean amplitude, but there was no interaction between the three factors – possibly because of the design and the small statistical power. However, it is not possible to conclude that accent has a systematic effect on believability. Further studies will determine whether this is true or not.