Lost In Pronunciatıon: The Influence Of Sociolinguistic Cues On Truth Judgements

Accent strongly shapes social perception, yet mechanisms driving accent-based biasare unclear. Focusing on truthfulness judgements, this thesis examined three competingtheoretical explanations: (1) standard language ideology, which posits thatstandard-accented speakers are granted higher credibility due to institutional prestige;(2) accent-based stereotyping, which suggests that accent evaluations reflectthe perceived status of associated ethnic or social groups; and (3) processing fluency,which argues that harder-to-understand accents trigger negative evaluations due toincreased cognitive effort. This study tested one hundred and thirty-seven Turkishadults who listened to personal anecdotes from four types of Turkish speakers: (1)standard accented, (2) standard-accented with low audio quality, (3) high-statusnon-standard, and (4) low-status non-standard. After each recording, participantsrated the perceived warmth, competence, and truthfulness of the speaker. Themodel based on standard language ideology best explained truth judgments. Unexpectedly,however, non-standard-accented speakers were rated as more truthful thanstandard-accented ones. Mediation analysis indicated that this effect was driven byhigher warmth attributions, even though competence ratings were lower. This studyoffers novel insights into how accent standardness structures social judgments, revealingthe nuanced nature of accent-based stereotyp