Howard Giles

University of California, Santa Barbara | UCSB · Department of Communication

Foreign language instruction emphasizes the development of learners’ communicative competence with the primary goal of being able to communicate in the target language. However, many Spanish language learners in Iran are unable to speak Spanish fluently even after reaching the upper intermediate level. Classroom interaction is essential for efficie...

This chapter gives an overview of the various data collection methods in qualitative research. Then the authors concentrate on the communication accommodation theory (CAT) and its strategies. Additionally, they explore how utilizing CAT can enhance the quality and depth of information gathered through focus groups and interviews. According to this...

This article discusses a timely and recent domain of intergroup relations scholarship that focuses on communication between police and the public—a domain we have previously described as intergroup par excellence. We begin with a brief overview of research on this topic, and then introduce four interrelated areas of research that illustrate the div...

Police worldwide face the ongoing challenge of forging positive and mutually beneficial relationships with the communities they serve. However, these relationships are sometimes strained and even violent, particularly in certain impoverished, indigenous, or minority communities with a long history of tension and conflict with the police. Communicat...

In this essay, I introduce a personal perspective on how the JLSP emerged and developed with respect to some of its key moments. In addition, I provide suggestions about how future research in the social psychology of language could contribute to its growth. A case is made for renewed efforts to engage societally-meaningful research questions on an...

Healthcare providers (HP) work in high-stress situations, interacting with patients and families who are often in crisis. HPs who work in safety net clinics, which provide care to uninsured, Medicaid recipients and other vulnerable populations, interact with patients who are frequently frustrated by long wait times, extensive paperwork, short appoi...

In many communities, certain segments of the population do not have trust and confidence in the police. These issues are particularly intense in some impoverished minority communities in which people are more likely to fear the police than to trust them. Much can be learned about the patterned dynamics between police and communities from the study...

Intimidation is often defined, received, and perceived pejoratively. The current study sets out to find a “sweet spot” in situations where intimidation cannot be avoided and compliance is the goal, where one can maximize compliance but keep fear as low as possible. This experimental study predicted that by lessening mean-spirited speech, a moderate...

This paper analyzes police and public reactions to an intergroup-communication intervention developed and tested in Santa Barbara, California. We discuss the theory underlying the development of the intervention as well as its implementation as a means of improving relationships between police officers and members of the Hispanic community. Based o...

This commentary addresses emotional mimicry from a communication accommodation theory (CAT) perspective. After reviewing CAT, we outline commonalities between CAT and the Emotional Mimicry as Social Regulator view. We then discuss how CAT and the Emotional Mimicry as Social Regulator view can contribute to each other. Finally, we provide directions...

Guided by communication accommodation theory (CAT), this study examined whether young adults’ perceptions of similarity in their religious and political beliefs with a parent and grandparent were associated with young adults’ relationship satisfaction, as well as how identity accommodation from the older family member moderated these associations....

The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Policing, Communication, and Society brings together well-regarded academics and experienced practitioners to explore how communication intersects with policing in areas such as cop-culture, race and ethnicity, terrorism and hate crimes, social media, police reform, crowd violence, and many more. By combining re...

Issues of race, racism, and social justice are under-studied topics in this journal. This Prologue, and our Special Issue (S.I.) more broadly, highlights ways that language and social psychology (LSP) approaches can further our understanding of race, racism, and social justice, while suggesting more inclusive directions for their theoretical develo...

Police use of force against minorities, particularly African-Americans, has become a prominent national issue in the United States. In a number of controversial instances, such as the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, African-Americans have died under questionable circumstances due to police use of force. These incidents have fueled the growth...

The role of individual differences in shaping family members’ experiences has only been sporadically examined in research on communication accommodation theory. This dyadic study (N = 126 middle-aged parents and 126 young adult children) investigated the relationship between parents’ and children’s attachment anxiety and avoidance and self-reported...

This essential volume explores the vital role of communication in the aging process and how this varies for different social groups and cultural communities. It reveals how communication can empower people in the process of aging, and that how we communicate about age is critically important to - and is at the heart of - aging successfully. Giles e...

This study’s purpose was to examine if older adults sharing a group identity with third-party family members moderated how older adults’ perceptions of receiving accommodation to the group identity from their romantic partner predicted older adults’ romantic relational satisfaction and depressive symptoms. Two-hundred and seventy-four older adults...

Patient-perpetrated workplace violence (WPV) in healthcare is common. Although communication skills trainings are helpful, they may be strengthened by having a theoretical framework to improve replicability across contexts. This study developed and conducted an initial test of a training framed by Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) using long...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe a theory-driven intervention called VOICES that was developed to improve police-community relations. The intervention was designed based on principles derived from social psychological theories of intergroup contact and communication. Design/methodology/approach The authors discuss the theoretical b...

In this Special Issue, we commemorate 40 years of publishing research in the Journal of Language & Social Psychology (JLSP). We first provide a brief glimpse of the history of the field of language and social psychology and the emergence of JLSP within it. This is then developed further by exploring the themes—and the relationships between them—ari...

Health professionals face high rates of workplace violence from patients. This study systematically informed registration staff about pre-violent behaviors and tested its impacts on staff approaches to aggression. In this study, staff were concerned that the implementation of the new patient registration questions as mandated by the Affordable Care...

This dyadic study examined how grandparents’ and grandchildren’s perceptions of receiving accommodation, overaccommodation, and underaccommodation were indirectly associated with grandchildren’s intentions to provide instrumental care and grandparents’ expectations that they would receive instrumental care, via both parties’ communication satisfact...

In this study, older adults’ reports of their romantic partner’s accommodation based on older adults’ membership in three groups were examined as predictors of relational closeness and loneliness. The three groups were older adults’ most important, second-most important, and third-most important group affiliations. A two-way interaction involving a...

As people age, experiences of depression, loneliness and loss of physical capabilities can emerge. As with previous work on the benefits of music as an intervention for social belonging and valued social identity, dance may increase similar feelings. Although theoretical chapters have been written on dance as it relates to social identity, belongin...

Interlocutors make a variety of verbal and nonverbal adjustments to facilitate comprehension and enhance relational solidarity. This article examines research on vocal accommodation and mimicry as a specific subset of scholarship on nonverbal adjustments. We begin by introducing communication accommodation theory and discussing how accommodation is...

In an attempt to enhance the likelihood that a lie is perceived as truthful, deceivers might strategically attempt to build rapport in an interaction. Deceivers can build this rapport by coordinating behaviors with their interaction partners, thereby creating interpersonal synchrony. The goal of this study was to empirically test whether deceptive...

Butler (Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London, UK: Versa; 2004) observed cultural shifts immediately after 9/11 and suggested that, with regard to grievable and ungrievable lives, societal power structures “produce and maintain certain exclusionary conceptions of who is normatively human” (p. xiv–xv). The current study brings...

This paper expands the theoretical base of intergroup and intercultural communication by testing a new communication model of interdependence (CMII), defined in terms of the embedded nature of groups Giles, M., R. Pines, H. Giles, and A. Gardikiotis. 2018. “Towards a Communication Model of Intergroup Interdependence.” Atlantic Journal of Communicat...

Using the Communicative Ecology Model of Successful Aging (CEMSA), this study examined how one’s own age-related communication and memorable message characteristics indirectly predict successful aging, via aging efficacy. Older adults with higher dispositional hope recalled memorable messages as (a) higher in positivity, (b) higher in efficacy, and...

This article provides key group vitality concepts followed by a selective overview of four decades of research on vitality issues. Group vitality is what makes language communities behave as distinctive and active collective entities within multilingual settings. Three structural factors combine to foster strong to weak group vitality: demographic...

Using the communicative ecology model of successful aging (CEMSA), this study examined whether or not older adults’ ways of communicating about a variety of age-related issues (e.g., making age-related excuses for their shortcomings, teasing other people about their age) predict older adults’ dietary habits. Participants were classified as engaged,...

This study examined how the accommodative environments experienced from grandparents and grandchildren’s own age-related communication are indirectly associated with grandchildren’s life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and loneliness, via grandchildren’s self-efficacy with respect to aging. The communication experienced from grandparents was cla...

Addressing the current gap in the literature regarding cultural festivals as a unique site of intergroup discourse, we invoke social identity and group vitality theories to explore the effect of attending an international cultural festival on members of different groups. A total of 143 participants at the 2016 Festival of Pacific Arts in Guam compl...

The communicative ecology model of successful aging (CEMSA), which theorizes how people’s communication can influence their experiences of successful aging, takes as axiomatic that aging involves uncertainty. In two studies, with data from the U.S. and the U.K., we compared the viability of two conceptualizations of uncertainty about aging in the C...

This study investigates the impact of perceived police accommodation on police–civilian interactions. Elaborating theoretically beyond a range of cross-cultural studies, we examine the cultural impact of accommodative communication in the United Arab Emirates and the USA, as the prior context demonstrates sociocultural parallels and differences inc...

Researchers have repeatedly called for more careful attention to how ethnicity and culture influence grandparent–grandchild communication. Using affection exchange theory as our guiding lens, we examined how grandchildren’s perceptions of receiving affection from their grandparents differ according to grandparents’ ethnicity. After controlling for...

We examined how older adults’ communication about age-related topics is related to aging efficacy, successful aging, and well-being. Guided by the communicative ecology model of successful aging, three profiles of “environmental chatter”—that is, patterns of accommodation and overaccommodation older adults received from relational partners—were ide...

Intergroup relations have been studied systematically for more than 60 years and have become embedded in mainstream communication studies. The intergroup communication (IGC) approach provides a crucial level of understanding beyond the interpersonal and the societal, highlighting the interconnections and mutual influences between groups and individ...

This article seeks to expand the theoretical base of intergroup communication by proposing a new model of interdependence. As a backdrop toward this end, historical and contemporary uses of the concept of interdependence are briefly reviewed across a range of different disciplines and research fields. Defining interdependence in terms of the embedd...

In this prologue to a special issue on intergroup communication, we highlight areas of intersection across its field. To start, we provide a brief history of the field, simultaneously highlighting 6 central principles guiding the work in this area. We then review 4 key themes—areas of intersection uniting the contributions in this special issue: (a...

Using identity implications theory as a guiding lens, this study examined how siblings, dating partners, and friends pursue relational repair or relational distancing after a hurtful conflict. Identity implications theory addresses how people pursue goals, but few studies have examined how varying types of relationships fit into the theory’s framew...

This mixed-methods study applies Communication Accommodation Theory to explore how liking, power, and sex predict one’s likelihood for using textisms in digital interpersonal interactions. Textisms are digital cues that convey nonverbal meaning and emotion in text communication. The main experiment used a hypothetical texting scenario to manipulate...

Sport is largely a social construction that sustains a plethora of cultural forms, ideologies, and communicative practices. Indeed, some commentators claim one cannot understand a culture adequately if they do not appreciate its distinctive sports and attending histories. Sport reflects societies' attitudes, with the latter shaping the former and o...

Intergroup communication is marked by the salience of one or more participants' social identities. This entry briefly reviews theoretical frameworks that assist our understanding of intergroup cognitive processes and communicative behavior (namely, social identity, self‐categorization, communication accommodation, and group vitality). Thereafter, f...

This study explored how type of grandparent is related to grandparents’ affectionate communication and grandchildren’s relational closeness to grandparents. We predicted that grandchildren would be closest to and receive the most affection from maternal grandmothers, followed by maternal grandfathers, paternal grandmothers, and paternal grandfather...

This article reviews theoretically informed research on grandparent-grandchild (GP-GC) communication. Research has been organized herein according to whether it is guided by an intergroup theory, an affect theory, or another type of theory. After reviewing research under these three broad categories, a heuristic value and degree of support for each...

In this article, we review the different functions that language and symbols (in particular clothing) fulfill in group life; language and clothing are rarely, if ever, discussed together in the same conceptual space. Our review includes a consideration of how social identities are communicated and discredited, boundaries crossed, and group norms es...

Two experiments tested the prediction that heavy foreign-accented speakers are evaluated more negatively than mild foreign-accented speakers because the former are perceived as more prototypical (i.e., representative) of their respective group and their speech disrupts listeners’ processing fluency (i.e., is more difficult to process). Participants...

Social Signal Processing is the first book to cover all aspects of the modeling, automated detection, analysis, and synthesis of nonverbal behavior in human-human and human-machine interactions. Authoritative surveys address conceptual foundations, machine analysis and synthesis of social signal processing, and applications. Foundational topics inc...

This article takes an intergroup communication perspective to conceptualizing language-related issues in multilingual multinational corporations (MNCs). Language is one of the most salient identifiers of individuals and groups as well as an integral aspect of self-concept. Managers of multilingual teams and MNCs, where speakers of different first l...

This chapter examines and overviews research on aging and communication conducted in various corners of the world, and illuminates critical issues such as age stereotypes, the changing roles of family and older person norms, intra-and intergenerational communication perceptions in general, and the subjective health implications of intra-and interge...

Communication accommodation theory (CAT) is a general theoretical framework for both interpersonal and intergroup communication. It seeks to explain and predict why, when, and how people adjust their communicative behavior during social interaction (including mediated contact), and what social consequences might result from such adjustments. This e...

Most people modify their ways of speaking, writing, texting, and e-mailing, and so on, according to the people with whom they are communicating. This fascinating book asks why we 'accommodate' to others in this way, and explores the various social consequences arising from it. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), revised and elaborated over th...

This final contribution to this special Journal of Language and Social Psychology issue on “using the science of language to improve translation of the language of science” places the articles in the context and nature of the broader literature on science communication, particularly as it relates to the media. This framework is crafted with a view...

This study examines age ingroup and outgroup communication perceptions of older Thai and American adults to assess whether communication perceptions of self and others are associated with mental health outcomes such as personal self-esteem, collective self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Results suggest that more accommodation by same-age older othe...

While deception is generally viewed as an undesirable and unethical action, people evaluate some lies as more detrimental than others. This study examined factors influencing deception assessments, including the seriousness of the lie and whom it benefits. The effect of an intergroup versus an interpersonal context for the lie was examined. Utilizi...

Two experiments examined the effects of processing fluency—that is, the ease with which speech is processed—on language attitudes toward native- and foreign-accented speech. Participants listened to an audio recording of a story read in either a Standard American English (SAE) or Punjabi English (PE) accent. They heard the recording either free of...

Accent is a potent cue to social categorization and stereotyping. An important agent of accent-based stereotype socialization is the media. The present study is the first quantitative content analysis to comprehensively examine accent portrayals on American primetime television. We focused our analysis on portrayals of Standard American (SA), Nonst...

The authors propose a comprehensive model for analyzing the level of intergroup tensions in diverse settings defined by six parameters: 1) emotional attachment to group identity; 2) boundary impermeability; 3) ethnocentrism; 4) perceived ingroup strength, 5) perceived illegitimacy of intergroup power relations; and 6) perceived level of intergroup...

Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) is a general theoretical framework of both interpersonal and intergroup communication. It seeks to explain and predict why, when, and how people adjust their communicative behavior during social interaction, and what social consequences result from those adjustments. In this entry, a brief historical overvie...

How we adapt our behavior for others’ preferences in interpersonal interactions—particularly when those preferences differ from our own—can be a means to nonverbally communicate our attention, interest, and concern for them. Invoking communication accommodation theory (CAT), this vignette study examined how relational closeness and attraction influ...

While deception is generally viewed across communities as an undesirable an unethical action, people evaluate some lies as more detrimental or more benign than others. This study examined the various factors influencing deception assessments. These factors included the seriousness of the lie and whom the lie benefits. As a novel addition, the role...

This chapter focuses on social psychological processes that may be operating when youth decide to join a gang. First, it argues that gang membership can be an alternative attractive option for youth who lack a clear sense of their social identity and are marginalized by their peers or community. Then, it discusses why young people join gangs, focus...

A consensually-agreed position among scholars of communication and aging is that while psychological and physical health mutually impact each other, the quality of language to and from older adult individuals shape each of these—and are shaped by them. Encounters with others inside and outside of one's age ingroup involve stereotyped expectations w...