Pauline Schilpzand

Not What You Expected to Hear: Accented Messages and Their Effect on Choice

In this article we address the increasingly important yet understudied phenomenon of nonnative accentedness on decision making. In three experimental studies, we investigated whether messages about a company delivered in nonstandard-American-accented speech influenced choice. In Study 1, we found that individuals were more likely to choose a company or a product when a message was read in a standard American English accent than when the message was delivered with a Mandarin Chinese or a French accent. In Study 2, we found that expectations regarding company messages are violated when speakers have accents and that, in turn, expectation violations mediated the relationship between accent and choice. In Study 3, we replicated the findings of the effect of accent on choice using Indian and British accents. We also hypothesized and found support for a conditional indirect effects model such that implicit pro-American bias moderated the indirect relationship between accent and choice as mediated by expectation violations. Theoretical and practical implications of this topic of study are discussed.

When and how experienced incivility dissuades proactive performance: An integration of sociometer and self-identity orientation perspectives.

In this article we build on relational Sociometer Theory (Leary, 2005; Leary & Baumeister, 2000) to posit the impact of the belongingness threat of experienced incivility in one’s work team on employee feelings of ostracism and subsequent engagement in proactive performance. Integrating the social-relational framework of Self-Identity Orientation Theory (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Cooper & Thatcher, 2010), we nuance our predictions by hypothesizing that chronic self-identification orientations influence both the effect that experiencing incivility in one’s work team exerts on feeling ostracized, and the impact that feeling ostracized has on subsequent employee proactive performance. Using a sample of 212 employees and their 51 supervising managers employed in an Internet service and solution company in China, we found support for our hypothesized model. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.