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Voice and speech correlates of perceived social influence in simulated juries
... In another study, Laver (1972) demonstrated an association of breathy voice with perceived higher sexuality and sensuality when the speaker was female but not when the speaker producing that breathy quality was male. Other studies have also demonstrated a correlation between certain vocal qualities and perceptions: the more significant the creakiness of a speaker, the higher the perceptions of that speaker's dominance or higher social status; the harsher the voice quality, the lower the perception of prestigious status (Esling, 1978;Scherer, 1979). Additionally, participants (who were described as young adults) rated voices with increased creakiness, above all the other vocal qualities assessed, as older. ...
... Additionally, participants (who were described as young adults) rated voices with increased creakiness, above all the other vocal qualities assessed, as older. Esling (1978) and Scherer (1979) also suggest that this perception of age, as a result of the presence of creakiness in vocal quality, may account for the decrease in ratings associated with the friendliness and attractiveness of a speaker. One major theory of personality and its associated traits is the Big 5 of Personality Traits (Norman, 1963;McCrae and John, 1992). ...
... Finally, it is essential to note that other factors in combination with vocal quality appear to play a role, such as age vs. creakiness (Esling, 1978;Scherer, 1979) or the interaction of creakiness, f0, and speech rate (Parker and Borrie, 2018). These, along with many other variations, suggest that, of course, vocal quality is not the only important component for listeners when giving ratings of personality traits. ...
Although previous studies investigated various aspects of voice quality perception and personality attribution there are no studies, to our knowledge, which simultaneously examine and compare the perception of various voice qualities when produced by the same individual. This work investigates how laryngeal and supralaryngeal voice quality variations of a speaker affect listeners' perceived personality traits (and thus perceived charisma) of that same speaker. Six Canadian English speakers produced paragraphs varying the following voice qualities: modal, creaky, breathy (natural and artificial), (hyper-)nasalization, and smiling (natural and extreme). Listeners of a perception experiment were then tasked to rate 10 statements for each presented audio stimulus. Statements were selected corresponding to a sub-section of the Big 5 personality traits shown to be linked to charisma perception. Results show significantly more positive listener ratings (i.e., higher ratings compared to modal) with medium effects sizes for both smiling variants across all personality traits. In contrast, creaky was perceived significantly more negatively overall for all personality traits, with a medium effect size. Nasal and breathy still achieved statistically significant rating differences compared to the modal baseline. However, the overall effect pattern was more complex, and effect sizes were small or negligible. Additionally, we found consistent differences for some voice qualities when examining listener ratings comparing male vs. female speakers: for both creaky and smiling (but not for other voice qualities), female speakers were rated more negatively when producing creaky for some personality traits, whereas both smiling variants were consistently rated higher for females compared to males.
... Voice-based first impressions can be formed rapidly with very brief exposure (less than half a second of speech [1][2][3][4]) and such impressions often are associated with subsequent behavior of the perceiver [5][6][7]. For example, voice-based personality judgments are associated with mate selection [8], leader election [9,10], housing options [11], consumer choices, and jury decision [12]. Although researchers have demonstrated how vocal perception influences the communication process [13], it remains unclear whether such influences find resonances in a communicative setting like oral arguments at the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), where subtle biases have consequences for major policy outcomes. ...
... Although researchers have demonstrated how vocal perception influences the communication process [13], it remains unclear whether such influences find resonances in a communicative setting like oral arguments at the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), where subtle biases have consequences for major policy outcomes. To be sure, previous studies suggest a significant role for linguistic cues in the court room [12,14,15], yet none has identified a definitive connection between voice perceptions and actual court outcomes. ...
... Landlords are found to discriminate against prospective tenants on the basis of the sound of their voice during telephone conversations [11]. Perceived task-ability, dominance, and sociability are found to show the strongest correlation with perceived influence in simulated juries [12]. Thus, the association between voicebased personality and court outcomes observed in this study further strengthens the importance of understanding how (and why) voice-based judgments influence human behavior. ...
Previous studies suggest a significant role of language in the court room, yet none has identified a definitive correlation between vocal characteristics and court outcomes. This paper demonstrates that voice-based snap judgments based solely on the introductory sentence of lawyers arguing in front of the Supreme Court of the United States predict outcomes in the Court. In this study, participants rated the opening statement of male advocates arguing before the Supreme Court between 1998 and 2012 in terms of masculinity, attractiveness, confidence, intelligence, trustworthiness, and aggressiveness. We found significant correlation between vocal characteristics and court outcomes and the correlation is specific to perceived masculinity even when judgment of masculinity is based only on less than three seconds of exposure to a lawyer’s speech sample. Specifically, male advocates are more likely to win when they are perceived as less masculine. No other personality dimension predicts court outcomes. While this study does not aim to establish any causal connections, our findings suggest that vocal characteristics may be relevant in even as solemn a setting as the Supreme Court of the United States.
... By example, perceived facial attractiveness affects numerous decisions that we make (for review see [13]), including mate choices, job selection and voting behavior [12,14,15]. Likewise, research has shown that perceived vocal personality influences mate selection, leader election, and consumer choices [16][17][18][19]. Such judgements from faces are formed after less than 100 ms exposure, [20,21] and are consistent across observers [22,23]. ...
... Discrepancies with previous studies may result from the use of longer speech patterns introducing additional parameters known to influence trait impressions, e.g. speech rate [18,73]. ...
... How these methodologies compare is an interesting question. Clearly the longer the passage heard and the more natural the phrasing, the more variables are introduced relating to voice quality which may alter the perceived personality [18,73,103]. That said, using read exerts of direct speech maintains content across speakers whilst allowing an element of conversation: research has shown that people engage in a naturalistic manner when reading direct speech, as opposed to indirect speech, and that listeners process it in a fashion similar to when having a conversation [104,105]. ...
On hearing a novel voice, listeners readily form personality impressions of that speaker. Accurate or not, these impressions are known to affect subsequent interactions; yet the underlying psychological and acoustical bases remain poorly understood. Furthermore, hitherto studies have focussed on extended speech as opposed to analysing the instantaneous impressions we obtain from first experience. In this paper, through a mass online rating experiment, 320 participants rated 64 sub-second vocal utterances of the word 'hello' on one of 10 personality traits. We show that: (1) personality judgements of brief utterances from unfamiliar speakers are consistent across listeners; (2) a two-dimensional 'social voice space' with axes mapping Valence (Trust, Likeability) and Dominance, each driven by differing combinations of vocal acoustics, adequately summarises ratings in both male and female voices; and (3) a positive combination of Valence and Dominance results in increased perceived male vocal Attractiveness, whereas perceived female vocal Attractiveness is largely controlled by increasing Valence. Results are discussed in relation to the rapid evaluation of personality and, in turn, the intent of others, as being driven by survival mechanisms via approach or avoidance behaviours. These findings provide empirical bases for predicting personality impressions from acoustical analyses of short utterances and for generating desired personality impressions in artificial voices.
... Studies have shown that fluent, nonhesitant speech is more credible than nonfluent speech, especially in terms of competence and dynamism judgments; nonfluencies appear to have no effect on character judgments and may even lead to favorable sociability judgments (Barge, Schlueter, & Pritchard, 1989;Erickson, Lind, Johnson, & O'Barr, 1978;McCroskey & Mehrley, 1969;Miller & Hewgdl, 1964;Ostermeier, 1967;Scherer, London, & Wolf, 1973;Sereno & Hawkins, 1967). Briefer pauses also heighten credibility (Lay & Burron, 1968;Newman, 1982;Scherer, 1979b;Scherer et al., 1973;Siegman & Reynolds, 1982;, with shorter response latencies being especially contributory to heightened competence, and moderate response latencies to heightened trustworthiness (Baskett & Freedle, 1974). Research on pitch variation has shown that greater variety enhances competence, character, and sociability (Addington, 1971;Brown, Strong, & Rencher, 1973Ray, 1986;Scherer, 1979b), the exception being that a conversational delivery style, which is less varied, is perceived as more trustworthy, friendly, and nondynamic than a "public speaking" or "dynamic" style (Barge et al., 1989;Pearce & Brommel, 1972;Pearce & Conklin, 1971). ...
... Briefer pauses also heighten credibility (Lay & Burron, 1968;Newman, 1982;Scherer, 1979b;Scherer et al., 1973;Siegman & Reynolds, 1982;, with shorter response latencies being especially contributory to heightened competence, and moderate response latencies to heightened trustworthiness (Baskett & Freedle, 1974). Research on pitch variation has shown that greater variety enhances competence, character, and sociability (Addington, 1971;Brown, Strong, & Rencher, 1973Ray, 1986;Scherer, 1979b), the exception being that a conversational delivery style, which is less varied, is perceived as more trustworthy, friendly, and nondynamic than a "public speaking" or "dynamic" style (Barge et al., 1989;Pearce & Brommel, 1972;Pearce & Conklin, 1971). Finally, pleasantness, when studied as a composite dimension, has been shown to predict all but the dynamism dimension of credibility (Burgoon, 1978). ...
... Another potency cue, loudness, also enhances perceptions of dominance, dynamism, and competence as well as emotional stability (Aronovitch, 1976;Burgoon, 1978;Erickson et al., 1978;Mehrabian & Williams, 1969;Ray, 1986;Scherer, 1979b;Scherer et al., 1973). While some research found that greater loudness also increases sociability perceptions (Scherer, 1979a), other research found that a softer voice is more benevolent and sociable (Pearce & Brommel, 1972;Ray, 1986) or found no relationship to sociability and character (Burgoon, 1978). ...
This study examined the relationships among nonverbal behaviors, dimensions of source credibility, and speaker persuasiveness in a public speaking context. Relevant nonverbal literature was organized according to a Brunswikian lens model. Nonverbal behavioral composites, grouped according to their likely proximal percepts, were hypothesized to significantly affect both credibility and persuasiveness. A sample of 60 speakers gave videotaped speeches that were judged on credibility and persuasiveness by classmates. Pairs of trained raters coded 22 vocalic, kinesic, and proxemic nonverbal behaviors evidenced in the tapes. Results confirmed numerous associations between nonverbal behaviors and attributions of credibility and persuasiveness. Greater perceived competence and composure were associated with greater vocal and facial pleasantness, with greater facial expressiveness contributing to competence perceptions. Greater sociability was associated with more kinesic/proxemic immediacy, dominance, and relaxation and with vocal pleasantness. Most of these same cues also enhanced character judgments. No cues were related to dynamism judgments. Greater perceived persuasiveness correlated with greater vocal pleasantness (especially fluency and pitch variety), kinesic/proxemic immediacy, facial expressiveness, and kinesic relaxation (especially high random movement but little tension). All five dimensions of credibility related to persuasiveness. Advantages of analyzing nonverbal cues according to proximal percepts are discussed.
... Early work in exploring influence has been examined in spoken conversations of small groups (e.g., Bales et al. [1951], Scherer [1979], Brook and Ng [1986], Ng et al. [1993], Bales [1969], Ng et al. [1995], and Reid and Ng [2000]). Through this work, it has long been established that there is a correlation between the conversational behavior of a discourse participant and how influential he or she is perceived to be by the other discourse participants. ...
... We compare our results to two baselines: predicting everyone as an influencer, and a classifier that uses the number of words a person wrote as its only feature. Early work in social science has established that the person who speaks the most is usually the influencer (e.g., Bales et al. [1951], Scherer [1979], and Brook and Ng [1986]). Therefore, the number of words a person wrote is a strong baseline. ...
Social media has become very popular and mainstream, leading to an abundance of content. This wealth of content contains many interactions and conversations that can be analyzed for a variety of information. One such type of information is analyzing the roles people take in a conversation. Detecting influencers, one such role, can be useful for political campaigning, successful advertisement strategies, and detecting terrorist leaders. We explore influence in discussion forums, weblogs, and micro-blogs through the development of learned language analysis components to recognize known indicators of influence. Our components are author traits, agreement, claims, argumentation, persuasion, credibility, and certain dialog patterns. Each of these components ismotivated by social science through Robert Cialdini's "Weapons of Influence" [Cialdini 2007]. We classify influencers across five online genres and analyze which features are most indicative of influencers in each genre. First, we describe a rich suite of features that were generated using each of the system components. Then, we describe our experiments and results, including using domain adaptation to exploit the data from multiple online genres.
... In order to achieve influence, speakers must also be able to articulate their arguments and favoured positions in sufficient detail while holding the floor. A measure of this facility is verbal productivity (number of words), which was found to correlate positively with perceived influence in German and American simulated juries (Scherer, 1979). ...
... We tested the above ideas using semi-naturalistic conversational groups each consisting of three or four interlocutors. A naturalistic context was preferred to the one created by cue manipulation or other, similarly contrived, methods in order to minimise experimental artificiality and demand characteristics (see Scherer, 1979). If, at the end of the conversation, a consensual hierarchy of influence had emerged in the group, high-ranking members would have used, as compared to low-ranking members, more turns and words, but less hedges, rising intonation, tag questions, intensifiers, and polite forms. ...
University students, in groups of 3 or 4, discussed legal aspects of commercial surrogacy and afterwards ranked the relative influence of each group member. As predicted, high-influence members spoke more words and had more successful turns during the conversation than low-influence members. The latter used a greater rate of intonation and intensifiers than the former. A closer examination of the results showed that turns were particularly important for high influence. Unexpectedly, tag questions and hedges did not result in low influence, probably due to the different usage of tag questions and to the nature of the conversation setting which, unlike one facing court witnesses, required tactful hedging in the exertion of influence.
... Variations among noncontent speech levels-including speech rate, response latency, turn duration, accent, and vocal intensity-have significantly influenced receivers' evaluative and attributional judgments of communicators, even when message content is held constant (Giles & Smith, 1979;Street & Brady, 1982), filtered (Hayes & Meltzer, 1972), or not controlled (Apple, Streeter, & Kraus, 1979;Scherer, 1979;Siegman & Reynolds, 1982). ...
... Speech evaluation research typically has been approached in one of two ways (for reviews, see Giles & Powesland, 1975;Scherer, 1979;Street & Hopper, 1982). First, the majority of studies have manipulated a stimulus speaker's speech levels and then garnered listeners'evaluative judgments of the speaker. ...
The purpose of this study was to examine speech convergence and speech evaluation in fact-finding interviews conducted in the field. Forty interviewers (ERs), undergraduates enrolled in a class on interviewing processes, conducted 20–30 minute interviews with selected interviewees (EEs), business persons and professionals in fields of interest to the ERs. Speech behaviors examined included response latency, speech rate, and turn duration; these were coded per one minute intervals of each interaction. Time series regression procedures indicated that both ERs and EEs converged speech rate and response latency toward their interlocutors' performances of these behaviors. Although turn duration convergence did not characterize the entire data set, male-male dyads did converge significantly and male (ER)-female (EE) dyads significantly diverged turn duration. Regarding speech evaluation, there was some evidence that greater response latency similarity, greater speech rate and response latency convergence, and faster ER speech and slower EE speech were positively related to the competence and social attractiveness judgments of participants. Limitations and implications are discussed.
... Few spoken words or syllables are sufficient to form impressions about speakers' physical characteristics, gender, age, emotions (e.g., Koolagudi & Rao, 2012;Pisanski et al., 2016), sexual orientation, or personality traits (McAller et al., 2014;Sulpizio et al., 2015). Like impressions shaped by facial cues, voice-based impressions can influence voting behaviour (Klofstad et al., 2012;Tigue et al., 2012) and court decisions (Scherer, 1979;see McAller & Belin, 2018 for a review). Thus, both faces and voices are rich sources of information that ultimately shape our judgements and behaviours towards others. ...
Research has shown that faces and voices shape impression formation. Most studies have examined either the impact of faces and voices in isolation or the relative contribution of each source when presented simultaneously. However, only a few studies have questioned whether and how impressions formed via one source can be updated due to incremental information gathered from the alternative source. Yet, cross-modal impression updating is key to shed light on person perception. Thus, we tested whether positive and negative face- and voice-based impressions could be updated by inconsistent cross-modal information. In Experiment 1 (N = 130), we tested whether face-based impressions could be updated by (in)consistent voices. In Experiment 2 (N = 262), we compared face-to-voice and voice-to-face impression updating. In Experiment 3 (N = 242), we favoured a more direct comparison of the two types of stimuli (i.e., the co-occurrence of both cue types when the new information is revealed). Results showed that voices have the greatest updating impact and that the updating effect of faces was halved when voices co-occurred for a second time. We discussed these results as evidence of the dynamical evolution of cross-modal impressions.
... Using inappropriately crude language also hurts the communicator's credibility (Bostrom, Baseheart, & Rossiter, 1973;Paradise, Cohl, & Zweig, 1980). However, a recipient's expectations regarding the communicator's speech also is affected by the communicator's social category (Burgoon, 1990;Scherer, 1979a). When encountering a persuasive message, a recipient will try to determine its intended meaning on the basis of all the available information, including relevant speech norms, the message's content and the communicator's verbal and nonverbal(gestures) behaviours (Krauss, 1987). ...
1Introduction Psychology is a field that studies both human and animal behaviour in a scientific way and also embraces all aspects of conscious and unconscious experience as well as thought. Psychology equally attempts to make predictions based on the observable aspects of the human behaviour. As a field of study, it is gradually becoming more relevant to the understanding of human relations and interconnectivities among humans of various backgrounds for smooth co existence. One aspect of psychology that really explores language and communication is social psychology. It explains the areas of cultural knowledge, and the primary means by which we gain access to the contents of other peoples' mind. Language is implicated in most of the phenomena that lie at the core of social psychology: attitude change, social perception, personal identity, social interaction, intergroup bias and stereotyping, attribution, and so on. Moreover, for psychologists, language typically is the medium by which responses are elicited by individuals, and in which they also respond: in social psychological research, more often than not, language plays a role in both stimulus and response. Just as language use pervades social life, the elements of social life constitute an intrinsic part of the way language is used (Krauss and Chi-Yue, 1998). Language and its characteristics Wardhaugh (2002) defines language to be knowledge of rules and principles and of the ways of saying and doing things with sounds, words, and sentences rather than just knowledge of specific sounds, words, and sentences. Anjola (2013) while giving an overview of some of the characteristics of language pointed out that Language is the basic tool of effective communication and this is reinforced when users of language have a shared meaning which transcends the literal meaning of words. Keller (1994) reinforces this with his definition of natural languages as a product of social interaction created through a series of invisible processes whose main purpose is to get something. This, therefore, interrelates the field of psychology with that of language. Language is primarily made up of vocal sounds only produced by a physiological articulatory system in the human body. Initially, it comes as vocal sounds only which later transcended into
... Using inappropriately crude language also hurts the communicator's credibility (Bostrom, Baseheart, & Rossiter, 1973;Paradise, Cohl, & Zweig, 1980). However, a recipient's expectations regarding the communicator's speech also is affected by the communicator's social category (Burgoon, 1990;Scherer, 1979a). When encountering a persuasive message, a recipient will try to determine its intended meaning on the basis of all the available information, including relevant speech norms, the message's content and the communicator's verbal and nonverbal(gestures) behaviours (Krauss, 1987). ...
... Migration Review winning friends, then certainly in influencing people" (Scherer, 1979:118) and the trustworthiness of a witness depends, as has been experimentally shown, to a considerable extent on the individual's ability to render his or her statement in a "narrative" and coherent as opposed to a "fragmented" manner (Lind/O'Barr, 1979:71-79). ...
... Migration Review winning friends, then certainly in influencing people" (Scherer, 1979:118) and the trustworthiness of a witness depends, as has been experimentally shown, to a considerable extent on the individual's ability to render his or her statement in a "narrative" and coherent as opposed to a "fragmented" manner (Lind/O'Barr, 1979:71-79). ...
This article demonstrates how misunderstandings rooted in the differences between the asylum-seeker's and the official's cultural background can seriously distort the process of communication during the asylum-hearing and thus impair the ability of refugees from Third World countries to make their asylum-claims credible.
... This can be straightforward when investigating attitudes towards whole languages or varieties, given access to perfectly bilingual or bidialectal speakers. When exploring more "molecular" variables (Scherer 1979), it becomes difficult to ensure that only the variable in question is affected. We understand very little about how different variables interact in the perception process, so it is unclear how far we can trust our judgments regarding whether other aspects of the performance have changed. ...
... In humans, Anolli and Ciceri (2002) found that successful (Italian) seducers began addressing their female targets with unusual levels of loudness, "orotundity" having been found in other work on male vocalization to evoke perceptions termed "energetic," "healthy," and "interesting," along with several other attractive qualities (Addington 1968). Then, as the conversation proceeded, the men lowered their vocal intensity and frequency, later returning to initial levels of loudness, and a faster rate of articulation -a variable associated with perceived competence and influence (Ray 1986;Scherer 1979;Smith et al. 1975) -by the end of the interaction. 13 There is also some anthropological evidence on the role of vocal and verbal behavior in courtship, much of it from the African-American community. ...
... Gesellschaften 195 mittels Fragebögen zu ihrem (hauptsächlich wirtschaftlichen) Organisations-und Führungsstil befragt. Neun kulturelle Dimensionen konnten festgestellt 194 Weitere Studien zum Vertrauen gegenüber dem Gesprächspartner zeigen ähnliche Verhältnisse, so fördert hohe SG das Vertrauen in den USA (Scherer, 1979a), nicht jedoch im Iran (Zandpour/Sadry 1996); nach Traunmüller (2004: 659 momentanen Verfassung und (Sprech-)Situation stehen muss. House et al. (2004: 309) machen darauf aufmerksam, dass FO positiv mit Uncertainty Avoidance (UA) korreliert. ...
In dieser Arbeit werden verschiedene Sprechtempoparameter in den Sprachen Chinesisch, Deutsch, Englisch, brasilianisches und europäisches Portugiesisch sowie Spanisch zueinander in Bezug gesetzt: Die Maßeinheiten Laute, Silben, Wörter und Morpheme pro Sekunde werden unter Ein- und Ausschluss der Pausenzeit gemessen. Dabei ergeben sich für die germanischen Sprachen niedrige Durchschnittswerte, die romanischen Sprachen liegen im mittleren bis hohen Bereich und das Chinesische weist je nach betrachtetem Parameter mittlere oder hohe Werte auf. Eine Analyse der Pausenstruktur ergibt vergleichbare Pausenanteile, aber einen höheren Anteil interner Pausen in den Sprachen Chinesisch, europäisches Portugiesisch und Spanisch. Weiterhin werden nonverbale Aspekte berücksichtigt und die Größen Gesten, Gesichts¬ausdrücke und Bewegungen des Kopfes und Oberkörpers pro Minute gemessen. Im brasilianischen Portugiesisch sind Gesten und im Chinesischen Bewegungen des Kopfes und Oberkörpers auffallend häufig. Geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede sind in allen Bereichen gering und nur im europäischen Portugiesisch statistisch signifikant. Bezüglich des wahrgenommenen Sprechtempos zeigt sich in Experimenten und Umfragen, dass die romanischen Sprachen als schnell bezeichnet werden. Chinesische Hörer schätzen außerdem das Sprechtempo anders ein als deutsche, wobei die Silbenkomplexität für beide Gruppen unterschiedliche Rollen spielt. Daneben bestehen zwischen diesen beiden Gruppen signifikante Unterschiede in der Beurteilung von Sachlichkeit und Vertrauenswürdigkeit in Aufnahmen. Für die untersuchte Sprechsituation wird davon ausgegangen, dass in verschiedenen Sprachgemeinschaften die Verwendung unterschiedlicher sprachlicher (verbaler wie nonverbaler) Mittel bevorzugt wird. Das Sprechtempo wird damit als eine von phonetisch-phonologischen Faktoren, aber auch von in gesellschaftlichen Gruppen vorhandenen Tendenzen im Sprachgebrauch beeinflusste Größe verstanden.
... Gesellschaften 195 mittels Fragebögen zu ihrem (hauptsächlich wirtschaftlichen) Organisations-und Führungsstil befragt. Neun kulturelle Dimensionen konnten festgestellt 194 Weitere Studien zum Vertrauen gegenüber dem Gesprächspartner zeigen ähnliche Verhältnisse, so fördert hohe SG das Vertrauen in den USA (Scherer, 1979a), nicht jedoch im Iran (Zandpour/Sadry 1996); nach Traunmüller (2004: 659 momentanen Verfassung und (Sprech-)Situation stehen muss. House et al. (2004: 309) machen darauf aufmerksam, dass FO positiv mit Uncertainty Avoidance (UA) korreliert. ...
... It has long been established that there is a correlation between the conversational behavior of a discourse participant and how influential he or she is perceived to be by the other discourse participants (Bales et al., 1951;Scherer, 1979;Brook and Ng, 1986;Ng et al., 1993;Ng et al., 1995). Specifically, factors such as frequency of contribution, proportion of turns, and number of successful interruptions have been identified as being important indicators of influence. ...
Regardless of language, the standard character set for text messages (SMS) and many other social media platforms is the Roman alphabet. There are romanization conventions for some character sets, but they are used inconsistently in informal text, such as SMS. In this work, we convert informal, romanized Urdu messages into the native Arabic script and normalize non-standard SMS language. Doing so prepares the messages for existing downstream processing tools, such as machine translation, which are typically trained on well-formed, native script text. Our model combines information at the word and character levels, allowing it to handle out-of-vocabulary items. Compared with a baseline deterministic approach, our system reduces both word and character error rate by over 50%.
... However, a recipient's expectations regarding the communicator's speech also is affected by the communicator's social category (Burgoon, 1990; see also Scherer, 1979a). When encountering a persuasive message, a recipient will try to determine its intended meaning on the basis of all the available information, including relevant speech norms, the message's content and the communicator's verbal and nonverbal behaviors (Krauss, 1987). ...
... Lahore is not unique in differential treatment on the basis of language, seeEdwards (1979) andScherer (1979).Journal of LanguageContact -VARIA 1 (2008) www. jlc-journal.org ...
The study concerns itself with Old Helsinki Slang (OHS), a peculiar speech variety (spoken approximately between 1890 and 1950), mixing Finnish morpho-syntax and Swedish vocabulary. It is claimed that it resembles intertwined mixed languages. The study focuses on the lexical, phonological, morphological and syntactical features which are most likely contact-based. Besides the vocabulary, the impact of Swedish is clearly seen in phonology, while in morpho-syntax differences from Finnish are minor. In the conclusion, OHS is compared with Media Lengua and Ma'á. Although OHS was never an independent or an established system, it has a particular value as an example of language mixing in an exceptionally well-documented urban environment, even though the process was interrupted, and OHS gradually merged with Finnish.
... Lahore is not unique in differential treatment on the basis of language, seeEdwards (1979) andScherer (1979).Journal of LanguageContact -VARIA 1 (2008) www. jlc-journal.org ...
This paper offers a model to explain the general observation that lexical items are more often borrowed from a higher status language into a lower status one, than visa versa. Material from Lahore, Pakistan, shows that in casual speech among plurilinguals codeswitching is the norm. In formal contexts, in which there is attention to proper language, educated speakers filter out features which are not part of the standard language. Constraints on language and education in the hierarchical social structure withhold from most speakers of the lower status languages the knowledge necessary to evaluate their own speech in this way, thus allowing features of other languages to become established in their language.
... In humans, Anolli and Ciceri (2002) found that successful (Italian) seducers began addressing their female targets with unusual levels of loudness, "orotundity" having been found in other work on male vocalization to evoke perceptions termed "energetic," "healthy," and "interesting," along with several other attractive qualities (Addington 1968). Then, as the conversation proceeded, the men lowered their vocal intensity and frequency, later returning to initial levels of loudness, and a faster rate of articulation -a variable associated with perceived competence and influence (Ray 1986;Scherer 1979;Smith et al. 1975) -by the end of the interaction. 13 There is also some anthropological evidence on the role of vocal and verbal behavior in courtship, much of it from the African-American community. ...
Language, like other human traits, could only have evolved during one or more stages of development. We enlist the theoretical framework of human life history to account for certain aspects of linguistic evolution, with special reference to initial phases in the process. It is hypothesized that selection operated at several developmental stages, the earlier ones producing new behaviors that were reinforced by additional, and possibly more powerful, forms of selection during later stages, especially adolescence and early adulthood. Peer commentaries have provided opportunities to explain human life history more comprehensively, and to add details to our account of spoken language. We made no attempt to explain syntax in the target article, but we propose here that selection for “vocal plumage” may have increased our species’ capacity for utterance complexity, a development that would have benefited all levels of language.
... In humans, Anolli and Ciceri (2002) found that successful (Italian) seducers began addressing their female targets with unusual levels of loudness, "orotundity" having been found in other work on male vocalization to evoke perceptions termed "energetic," "healthy," and "interesting," along with several other attractive qualities (Addington 1968). Then, as the conversation proceeded, the men lowered their vocal intensity and frequency, later returning to initial levels of loudness, and a faster rate of articulation -a variable associated with perceived competence and influence (Ray 1986;Scherer 1979;Smith et al. 1975) -by the end of the interaction. 13 There is also some anthropological evidence on the role of vocal and verbal behavior in courtship, much of it from the African-American community. ...
The uniqueness of human cognition and language has long been linked to systematic changes in developmental timing. Selection for postnatal skeletal ossification resulted in progressive prolongation of universal patterns of primate growth, lengthening infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Language emerged as communication increased in complexity within and between communities rather than from selection for some unique features of childhood or adolescence, or both.
... In his pioneering work on interaction processes, Bales (1970) made the obvious but nevertheless important observation that to become influential in a discussion one must take a speaking turn. Indeed, numbers of speaking turns have been shown to be a strong predictor of perceived social influence (e.g., Brooke & Ng, 1986; Ng, Bell, & Brooke, 1993; Ng, Brooke, & Dunne, 1995; Reid & Ng, 1998; Scherer, 1979 ). If speaking turns are the necessary precondition for influence , the pertinent question to ask, then, is how do speakers come to gain speaking turns? ...
Language is a communication medium for turning a power base into influence. But more than that, the creation of power and its maintenance or change can also occur in and through language. In the present article, we discuss some of the dynamic links between language and power to underscore their relevance to the study of intergroup relations. In particular we address the means by which low-power groups might achieve power, and how those who are in high-power positions might retain and subvert acts of power. In doing this, we counterpose our discussion with research that addresses these same issues from a static and individualistic approach to power. Our central argument is that the latter work lacks theoretical facility for describing and understanding the aforementioned dynamic processes of power, and moreover, that its application may unwittingly serve to reify and cement existing control relationships.
... Article frequency should then increase perceptions of trustworthiness. Finally, an important reason why language may influence perceptions of trustworthiness is its ability to elicit social categorization (Fiske & Taylor, 1991; Scherer, 1979). Specifically, language choice can make interactants feel like part of an ingroup or an outgroup. ...
This article investigates whether deceptions in online dating profiles correlate with changes in the way daters write about themselves in the free-text portion of the profile, and whether these changes are detectable by both computerized linguistic analyses and human judges. Computerized analyses (Study 1) found that deceptions manifested themselves through linguistic cues pertaining to (a) liars' emotions and cognitions and (b) liars' strategic efforts to manage their self-presentations. Technological affordances (i.e., asynchronicity and editability) affected the production of cognitive cues more than that of emotional cues. Human judges (Study 2) relied on different and nonpredictive linguistic cues to assess daters' trustworthiness. The findings inform theories concerned with deception, media, and self-presentation, and also expound on how writing style influences perceived trustworthiness.
The growing emphasis on “fit” as a hiring criterion introduces the potential for a new, subtle form of discrimination (Bertrand & Duflo, 2017). Analysis of 1,901 U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments from 1998 to 2012 documents that voice-based snap judgments predict court outcomes. Male petitioners who rank below median in perceived masculinity are 7 percentage points more likely to win. This negative correlation between perceived masculinity and winning cases in the Supreme Court is more pronounced in masculine industries. Perceived femininity of women lawyers also predicts court outcomes. Democrats favor men with less masculine-sounding voices. Perceived masculinity explains additional variance in Supreme Court decisions beyond what is predicted by the best random forest prediction model. A de-biasing experiment using information and incentives in factorial design is consistent with misperceptions and taste for masculine-sounding lawyers explaining the negative correlation between perceived masculinity and Supreme Court wins.
Media depictions of interactions between members of different ethnic/racial groups can have either constructive or detrimental social impact depending on the characteristics of these representations. To advance understanding of these interracial dynamics, the linguistic characteristics of interracial interactions in scripted primetime television shows were examined. Human and computer-assisted analysis of 548 interactions involving 578 characters revealed a relatively egalitarian pattern of representation of interracial interactions. Furthermore, in line with communication accommodation theory, characters generally matched each other’s language use (i.e., converged) during interracial interactions.
Trust between group members has many implications for how well a group performs. In this study, we predict perceived trustworthiness of group members when there are subversive group members. We collected multimodal verbal and non-verbal data from a group interaction experiment. During the interaction, we periodically surveyed the group members about their perceptions of trustworthiness of other group members. We used this data to model the relationship between observable behavior and perceptions of trustworthiness. This research advances the study of behavioral measurement in groups and the role of behavior on perceived trustworthiness.
Sozialwissenschaftliche Analysen zur außergerichtlichen Verfahrenspraxis bei Jugendlichen (erschienen 1996, Forum Verlag) VORWORT Die vorliegende Arbeit ist im Rahmen eines Projekts zur "Informalisierung sozialer Kontrolle im Bereich abweichenden Verhaltens Jugendlicher" entstanden und wurde im Frühjahr 1993 von der Soziologischen Fakultät der Universität Bielefeld als Dissertation angenommen. Im Mittelpunkt dieser Studie steht die Frage nach dem Täter-Opfer-Ausgleich als handlungspraktische Alternative zu den sonst üblichen Maßnahmen der Jugendgerichtsbarkeit. Theoretische Referenzpunkte sind Überlegungen aus der Kriminalsoziologie, der Rechts- und Gerechtigtigkeitstheorie sowie aus der kommunikativen Pragmatik. Anhand exemplarisch ausgewählter Fallanalysen wird gezeigt, wie sich die Dynamik der Unrechtsaufarbeitung im Alltag der Konfliktregelung konkret entwickelt. Die Untersuchung macht deutlich, daß die Unrechtsaufarbeitung in Ausgleichsverfahren wesentlich eine Funktion von Rechtfertigungen ist, mit denen die Beschuldigten ihr inkriminiertes Verhalten zu legitimieren versuchen; darüber hinaus zeigt sie auf, daß durch die besondere Art einer außergerichtlichen Konfrontation die ansonsten eben nicht durchbrochenen Rechtfertigungsmuster der Täter aufgehoben werden können. Bei alldem wird schließlich klar, daß sich das Recht nicht allein in der sachlichen Anwendung der Rechtsnorm erschöpft, sondern sich nicht zuletzt auch sozial, das heißt interaktiv bzw. sprachlich vermittelt. In den herkömmlichen Gerichtsverfahren wird dieser Problemzusammenhang dadurch gelöst, daß man die von den Regeln der förmlichen Unrechtsaufarbeitung abweichende Position kommunikativ neutralisiert: Das betrifft zum einen die Einstellungs-und Überzeugungsdifferenzen in Bezug auf die sprachförmige Darstellung täter-spezifischer Motive, zum andern aber auch die eher normativen Erwartungsdifferenzen hinsichtlich dessen, was der Einzelne als gerecht definiert. Vor diesem Hintergrund öffnen die Analysen den Blick dafür, warum das herkömmliche Gerichtsverfahren die Lebensrealität von Täter und Opfer nicht eigentlich trifft und strafende Maßnahmen nur wenig helfen.
One of the distinguishing features of contemporary research on language in the judicial process is the striking diversity of scholarly disciplines which have begun to make significant contributions to this domain of inquiry. In this volume alone, we find analyses by researchers trained in anthropology, English literature, law, linguistics, political science, psychology, sociology— and various combinations thereof. To be sure, the research reports have a fundamental theme in common: a shared focus on some aspect of language that has particular significance in the world of law. Nevertheless, we may observe among the researchers intriguing differences which lend an unusual richness and stimulating breadth to the field.
Recently, the entertainment programs with vocal skills assessment through the broadcasting and cable broadcasting have become very popular. But, in spite of higher popularity, present performance evaluation methods including musical sympathy of the pop singers and plain performers in broadcastings are absolutely dependent on the subjective feelings of audience assessors who evaluate the musical sympathy in these programs. For solving this problem, quantitative methods instead of subjective methods in the entertainment industries for evaluating pop singer`s performance and musical sympathy are taken as important issues and social demands. For this, in this paper, we propose a visual and quantitative evaluation method by applying ICT technologies that can be evaluated in all areas of musical sympathy as well as a singer`s assessment.
Political leaders and other public figures use intense language (specific or emotional lexical items in a text) to wield power in society. Information processing theory is used to explain the effect of language intensity on topic, message and source evaluation. These effects are demonstrated by examining the impact of language intensity in George Bush’s Declaration of Hostilities message. Participants in the study (N = 285) read a low-, moderate- or high-intensity version of the Bush message. Causal models with good fit provided solid support for information processing theory; the theory was then extended to include additional variables and reciprocal effects. The findings are shown to have implications for public discourse in an era of frequent military interventions.
This paper demonstrates the role of linguistic form in effecting compliance patterns in dyads. It is shown how language may be used to sedate a target from thinking about the equity implicit in an influence attempt. Also, a model that indicates how language serves as a palliative in supplementing exchange considerations is developed.
It has long been established that there is a correlation between the dialog behavior of a participant and how influential he or she is perceived to be by other discourse participants. In this paper we explore the characteristics of communication that make someone an opinion leader and develop a machine learning based approach for the automatic identification of discourse participants that are likely to be influencers in online communication. Our approach relies on identification of three types of conversational behavior: persuasion, agreement/disagreement, and dialog patterns.
In my thesis I propose a data-oriented study on how social power relations between participants manifest in the language and structure of online written dialogs. I propose that there are different types of power relations and they are different in the ways they are expressed and revealed in dialog and across different languages, genres and domains. So far, I have defined four types of power and annotated them in corporate email threads in English and found support that they in fact manifest differently in the threads. Using dialog and language features, I have built a system to predict participants possessing these types of power within email threads. I intend to extend this system to other languages, genres and domains and to improve it's performance using deeper linguistic analysis.
In this paper we explore the written dialog behavior of participants in anon line discussion for automatic identification of participants who pursue power within the discussion group. We employ various standard unsupervised machine learning approaches to make this prediction. Our approach relies on the identification of certain discourse structures and linguistic techniques used by participants in the discussion. We achive an F-measure of 69.5% using unsupervised methods.
Three levels of speech rate and pitch variation were used in audio‐taped presentations of two medical messages varying in seriousness of illness (high and low). The messages were uttered in natural speech samples which listeners judged according to their perceptions of rate and pitch as well as personality traits. A personality structure emerged which included dynamism, social attractiveness, and professional competence. Rate had its largest effects on dynamism while pitch variation had a greater influence on social attractiveness and professional competence. Seriousness of illness was primarily involved in interaction effects, the most important of which involved interaction between seriousness of illness and rate. High rate was perceived as less professionally competent in the high serious illness condition than the low serious condition, while medium rate yielded the highest ratings of professional competence for the high serious illness. The results are discussed in the framework provided by the dimensional structure and the nature of the message content.
Members of eight single-sex groups each consisting of three pro- and three anti-capital punishment adherents discussed their views for 30 minutes, and afterwards individually rated ingroup and outgroup members on social influence ranking, prototypicality, and social attractiveness. From the intragroup hypothesis that speaking turns are a resource for influence (Ng & Bradac, 1993), we predicted and found that turns were correlated strongly with influence in the intergroup context. Further, using self-categorization theory (SCT; Turner, 1985), we hypothesized that social identity processes would interact with turns, especially with turns obtained through interruptions. Interrup- tions encoded in prototypical utterances were more strongly correlated with social influence and prototypicality, but not social attraction, than interruptions encoded in non-prototypical utterances. Further, interruption attempts enacted in prototypical utterances were found to be more likely to be successful than unsuccessful in obtaining turns, while those enacted in non-prototypical utterances were more likely to be unsuccessful than successful. Additionally, interruption turns were longer when enacted in prototypical over non-prototypical utterances. Overall, the findings suggest that the power/influence of language is interactively organized and constructed around salient self-categorizations. Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Talk and silence are two general, analytic categories applied to a pragmatic study of a filmscript Przesltichanie ('The Interrogation') by Ryszard Bugajskl. The analysis follows a frame analytic approach in demonstrating how talk and silence are interchangeably used as dominant surface linguistic forms across different interactive frames. It is also shown how talk and silence are part of the metamessage of interaction, i.e. how they frame utterances and how they are used to establish the footing between interactants. Frame analysis is a dynamic framework for the analysis of discourse. Frame shifting can account for many impediments in communication as well as the negotiation of participants' multiple goals in discourse. The text of The Interrogation, which is largely centred on conflict between the main character (Tonia) and two interrogating officers, lends itself particularly well to such a dynamic analysis.
The investigation reported here was designed to examine how one leader and three members display social structure through their use of power and social distance language forms. Specifically, this work extends initial research into the simultaneous operation of Leader‐Member Exchange and Average Leadership Style models, by showing how some conversational resources distinguish “in,”; from “middle,”; from “out‐group”; relationships, whereas others neutralize group membership.
The study of witness testimony raises questions which are fundamental for the student of other cultures, whether past or contemporary. What are the standards expected of a reliable informant and how is reliability to be recognised? How is reliable knowledge about the past established?The aim of this paper is to analyse the use of witnesses in classical Athenian lawcourts both for its epistemological implications — what does it tell us about Athenian ideas of ‘expert witnesses’, of reliability, of truthfulness and bias — and for the information it gives us about Athenian society and court practice. What kind of men did Athenian litigants select to act as witnesses for them, and what effect did they hope their witnesses’ testimonies would have on the jury?If we start out from the assumption of modern courts that witnesses are called to ‘establish the facts of the case’ we shall misunderstand the Athenian data. What witnesses actually testified often was not very important: their testimonies might be insignificant, irrelevant or repetitive. To understand their role it is necessary to see them as minor characters in a drama, whose presence provides the backdrop against which the litigant wishes his own actions and character to be seen. Respectable witnesses — officials, members of the ‘professions’, reputable politicians — establish his own respectability. The support of neighbours, associates and kin shows that those who know the milieu in which the dispute arose are on the litigant's side. Denigration Of the opponent's witnesses, kin and associates presents him as a vicious and unreliable character. In the construction of a character‐portrait in court witnesses had an important role to play.
Recent democratic theorists have drawn on the work of the late Pierre Bourdieu to make the case that patterned inequalities in the social capacity to engage in deliberation can undermine deliberative theory's democratic promise. They have proposed a range of deliberative democratic responses to the problem of cultural inequality, from enabling the marginalised to adopt the communicative dispositions of the dominant, to broadening the standards that define legitimate deliberation, to strengthening deliberative counter-publics. The author interprets Bourdieu's theory of the linguistic habitus to prompt an even more radical critique of deliberative democracy than these theorists acknowledge, one to which the proposed solutions fail adequately to respond. Her argument suggests that empirical work on deliberative democracy should expand to address specifically the problems of cultural inequality that Bourdieu's work highlights.
High rising terminal intonation (HRT) has been the focus of considerable research in New Zealand since the mid-1980s, much of which is based on interviews. In this article, I build on that work by examining the role of HRTs in naturally occurring discourse in courtrooms, where a number of different role relations are represented. The courtroom provides an ideal testing ground for examining the relationship between HRTs and the powerless language style with which they have often been associated by providing an environment involving power differentials. The findings lead to the conclusion that although HRTs certainly have some association with power, it is more accurate to describe them in terms of discourse function, role, and goals than as a stable social attribute of speakers.
Examined the interactive effects of speech rate, dialect, and attributional context using a realistic vocal presentation. The test passage was a 153-word explanation of somewhat complex social psychological principles of language behavior that was audio-recorded as it was produced by a bidialectal male speaker in 6 forms: The speaker used either a Southeast Welsh accent or a standard British accent in each of 3 recordings that were either slow, medium, or fast. Five male and 5 female undergraduate judges were randomly assigned to each of 12 judging groups. Each of the 12 groups heard only 1 of the 6 forms of the passage. Half of the groups received their particular form of the passage with no explanation of the context in which it was generated (monolog condition). The other half of the groups (context condition) were given additional contextual information that was expected to substantially alter the effect of rate manipulations on listener judgments. Results indicate that ratings on competence adjectives such as intelligent, ambitious, and active were a monotonically increasing function of speech rate. Standard British was rated higher on competence adjectives than was Welsh. A significant interaction was found between rate and context on intelligent and ambitious, the primary competence adjectives. (53 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
SandellRolf, Linguistic style and persuasion. (European Monographs in Social Psychology Series). London and New York: Academic Press, 1976. Pp xiv+329. - Volume 7 Issue 2 - Howard Giles
In an examination of the language used by expert witnesses during actual courtroom testimony, it was expected that experts who exhibited content themes related to their credentials or experience (expertise) and to objectivity (trustworthiness) would be perceived as being more credible. Forty-three segments of expert testimony were taken from actual court transcripts and content analyzed. Two-factor analytically derived factors predicted expert witness membership into low- and high-credibility groups, defined a priori by credibility judgments of undergraduate raters (n = 348). These factors were (a) the use of passive voice and (b) the witnesses' background and qualifications. Further analyses revealed that perceptions of expert witness credibility were also a function of the usage of words that connote power (an expert's official status, degree of prominence and/or recognition) or negative (suffering or damage). Results are discussed in terms of dimensions of source credibility and their parallels to past research in persuasion.
Two studies examined the effects of attractiveness of voice and physical appearance on impressions of personality. Subject-senders were videotaped as they read a standard-content text (Study 1) or randomly selected texts (Study 2). Judges rated the senders' vocal attractiveness from the auditory portion of the tape and their physical attractiveness from the visual portion of the tape. Other judges rated the senders' personality on the basis of their voice, face, or face plus voice. Senders with more attractive voices were rated more favorably in both the voice and face plus voice conditions; senders with more attractive faces were rated more favorably in both the face and face plus voice conditions. The effects of both vocal and physical attractiveness were more pronounced in the single channels (voice condition and face condition, respectively) than in the multiple channel (face plus voice condition). Possible antecedents and consequences of the vocal attractiveness stereotype are discussed. p]Her voice was ever soft, gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.
Shakespeare (King Lear, Act V, Sc. 3)
Previous research has shown that more attractive voices are associated with more favorable personality impressions. The present study examined which acoustic characteristics make a voice attractive. Segments of recorded voices were rated on various dimensions of voice quality, attractiveness, and personality impressions. Objective measures of voice quality were obtained from spectrogram analysis. Overall, the subjective ratings of voice quality predicted vocal attractiveness better than the objective measures. When vocal attractiveness was regressed onto both subjective and objective measures, the final regression equation included 8 subjective measures, which together accounted for 74% of the variance of the attractiveness scores. It also was found that the measures of voice quality accounted for variance in favorableness of personality impressions above and beyond the contribution of vocal attractiveness. Thus, attractiveness captures an important dimension of the voice but does not cover all aspects of voice quality.
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