The Impact of Cultural Background and Cross-Cultural Experience on Impressions of American and Korean Male Speakers

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that people from different cultures would form different trait impressions based on the same vocal qualities and that cross-cultural experience would influence trait impressions through adaptive acculturation. Koreans in Korea, Koreans in the United States, and Americans served as subjects with American and Korean male speakers as targets. It was found that vocal loudness universally conveyed power. The effects of vocal rate and tenseness differed across cultures. A fast voice conveyed power and competence to Americans, but not to Koreans. Koreans in the United States converged with Americans in perceiving a positive relationship between vocal speed and the competence of American and Korean speakers. However, unlike Americans, they did not perceive a positive relationship between vocal speed and power. Koreans in the United States perceived a positive relationship between a tight voice and the power of both Korean and American speakers more so than Koreans in Korea did. These results are discussed within theories of ecological perception and linguistic accommodation.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bond, M. H. , & Hwang, K. K. (1986). The social psychology of Chinese people. In M. H. Bond (Ed.), The psychology of the Chinese people (pp. 213-266). New York: Oxford University Press.

Brown, B. L. , Strong, W. J. , & Rencher, A. C. (1974). Fifty-four voices from two: The effects of simultaneous manipulations of rate, mean fundamental frequency, and variance of fundamental frequency on ratings of personality from speech. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 55, 313-318.

Giles, H. , & Coupland, N. (1991). Language: Contexts and consequences. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Helfrich, H. (1979). Age markers in speech. In K. R. Scherer & H. Giles (Eds.), Social markers in speech (pp. 63-107). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lee, H. O. , & Boster, F. J. (1989, May). Speech rate and perceptions of source credibility: A cross-cultural comparison study. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, San Francisco, CA.

Levine, R. V. , & Bartlett, K. (1984). Pace of life, punctuality, and coronary heart disease in six countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 15, 223-255.

McArthur, L. Z. (1988). Person perception in cross-cultural perspective. In M. H. Bond (Ed.), The cross-cultural challenge to social psychology (pp. 245-265). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

McArthur, L. Z. , & Baron, R. M. (1983). Toward an ecological theory of social perception. Psychological Review, 90, 215-238.

Meyerson, M. (1976). The effects of aging on communication. Journal of Gerontology, 31, 29-38.

10.

Montepare, J. M. , & McArthur, L. Z. (1987). Perception of adults with childlike voices in two cultures. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 23, 331-349.

11.

Pittam, J. (1987). Listeners' evaluations of voice quality in Australian English speakers. Language and Speech, 30, 99-113.

12.

Pittam, J. , & Gallois, C. (1986). Predicting impressions of speakers from voice quality: Acoustic and perceptual measures. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 5, 233-247.

13.

Ray, G. B. (1986). Vocally cued personality prototypes: An implicit personality theory approach. Communications Monographs, 53, 266-276.

14.

Robinson, J. , & McArthur, L. Z. (1982). Impact of salient vocal qualities on causal attribution for a speaker's behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 236-247.

15.

Rosenmayr, L. (1985). Changing values and positions of aging in western culture. In J. E. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (2nd ed., pp. 190-215). New York: Academic Press.

16.

Ryan, W. J. (1972). Acoustic aspects of the aging voice. Journal of Gerontology, 27, 265-268.

17.

Scherer, K. R. (1972). Judging personality from voice: A cross-cultural approach to an old issue in interpersonal perception. Journal of Personality, 40, 194-210.

18.

Scherer, K. R. (1979). Personality markers in speech. In K. R. Scherer & H. Giles (Eds.), Social markers in speech (pp. 147-209). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

19.

Scherer, K. R. (1982). Methods of research on vocal communication: Paradigms and parareters. In K. R. Scherer & P. Ekman (Eds.), Handbook of methods in non-verbal behavior research (pp. 136-198). New York: Cambridge University Press.

20.

Scherer, K. R. (1986). Vocal affect expression: A review and a model for future research. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 143-165.

21.

Street, R. L. , & Brady, R. M. (1982). Speech rate acceptance ranges as a function of evaluative domain, listener speech rate and communication context. Communication Monographs, 49, 290-308.

22.

Street, R. L. , Brady, R. M. , & Lee, R. (1984). Evaluative responses to communicators: The effects of speech rate, sex and interaction context. Western Journal of Speech Communication, 48, 14-27.

23.

Street, R. L. , Brady, R.M. , & Putman, W. B. (1983). The influence of speech rate stereotypes and rate similarity on listeners' evaluations of speakers. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 2, 37-56.