Accommodation to Viewer's Language: Exploring Mechanisms for Improving Intergroup Attitudes via Dubbed and Subtitled Films

Abstract

Positive mediated intergroup contact improves intergroup relations. By examining such effects in the foreign-language film context with varying verbal delivery methods, the study explores outgroup characters’ language accommodation to viewers as a critical mechanism. This experiment (N = 204) investigated how different verbal delivery methods in a foreign language movie featuring Asian Americans (titled Minari) influenced attitudes toward Asian Americans. Among native English speakers in America, watching the film with a native speaker's English dubbing (vs. foreign-accented English dubbing vs. foreign language with subtitles) led to more positive attitudes toward Asian Americans, mediated by two theory-driven mechanisms: perceived similarities and processing fluency with the target Asian American character. Results indicated that exposure to the target Asian American character in the native speaker's English dubbed (vs. subtitled) condition resulted in more perceived similarities with the character and fluent processing of the character's speech. Subsequently, these factors translated into positive evaluations of the character and Asian Americans as a group. With an emphasis on the role of language accommodation to viewers, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.