Keywords

Dialectal bias; Courtroom dynamics; Speaker credibility; AAVE vs SAE; Expectation violation

Abstract

There is much evidence to indicate the role of speaker accent expectations and its impacts on the subsequent rating of the speaker. Additionally, examples including the Central Park Five as well as Rachel Jeantel of the Trayvon Martin case indicate the impacts of this speaker rating particularly in the context of the courtroom. This necessitates the further evaluation of the impact of dialectal bias on speaker ratings especially in the context of a courtroom due to the severity of the impacts. Utilizing a 4x2 between subjects experimental design manipulating on the basis of both dialect and speaker expectation, this study demonstrated that the usage of AAVE compared to SAE decreased overall ratings of perceived credibility of the speaker. However, this was not replicated with perceived favourability. No clear link between expectation violation and speaker ratings was established as well.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2021

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Sandoval, Jennifer

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Nicholson School of Communcation and Media

Degree Program

Communication

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0008856; DP0026135

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0026135

Language

English

Release Date

December 2021

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Verdicts--Psychological aspects; Jury--Attitudes; Sociolinguistics--Research; Discrimination--Research; Forensic oratory--Psychological aspects

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Communication Commons

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