4. Dixon et al (2002) Flashcards
Aim
to further document the evaluative consequences of accent in a legal context by investigating the influence of an English regional accent, the Birmingham or “Brummie” accent, on listeners’ attributions of guilt toward a criminal suspect. In light of this trend, one might expect Brummie-accented suspects, which are associated with a working-class culture, to receive higher ratings of guilt than standard-accented suspects, which was the main hypothesis of this study.
The main hypothesis tested was therefore ‘A Brummie-accented suspect will elicit stronger attributions of guilt than a standard-accented suspect’
Hypotheses (2)
It was predicted that a ‘Brummie’ suspect would elicit stronger attributions of guilt than a standard accented suspect.
The study also looked at the influence of the race of the suspect and type of crime committed.
Background
Social psychological research in this area e.g. Halo Effect
Seggie (1983) found that these factors also influence one another – those with a broad Australian accent were judged as being more guilty when the suspect was accused of assault (a blue-collar crime), whereas more guilt was given to the Received Pronunciation (RP) accent when the suspect was accused of theft (a white-collar crime).
Method
- This was a laboratory experiment. The independent variable (IV) was which of the conditions the participant was assigned to –
- accent type: Brummie/standard
- race of suspect: Black/White,
- crime type: blue collar/white collar.
The main dependent variable (DV) was participants’ attributions of guilt.
- The experiment used an independent measures design.
Sample
119 white undergraduate psychology students from the University of Worcester
24 m, 95 f with a mean age of 25.2 years.
Conclusions (5)
- Attributions of guilt may be affected by accent in a British context.
- Nonstandard (English) speakers are perceived as guiltier than standard speakers.
- Suspects speaking with a Brummie accent are more likely to be perceived as guilty of an offence than RP suspects.
- Suspects accused of a blue-collar crime who are Black and speak with a Brummie accent, are likely to be perceived as guilty.
- A suspect’s perceived Superiority and Attractiveness may predict whether they are guilty or not guilty
Research method?
IV?
DV?
Experimental design?
Lab experiment
IVs: 2x2x2
1) Accent - (Birmingham/standard)
2) Race - (Black/white) this was changed by the inspector during the interviews
3) Type of crime - (armed robbery/cheque fraud)
DV: Participants’ attributions of
guilt.
The experiment design was an independent measures design and took place in the Department of Psychology at the University College–Worcester.
8 conditions
Participants were randomly allocated to one of the conditions.
- Brummie/black/blue collar
- Brummie/black/ white collar
- Brummie/white/blue collar
- Brummie/white/white collar
- Standard/black/blue collar
- Standard/black/ white collar
- Standard/white/blue collar
- Standard/white/white collar
Procedure (3 things)
- Participants listened to a two-minute recorded conversation between (two actors playing) a middle aged police inspector and young male suspect pleading his innocence.
- This was based on a transcript of an interview that occurred in a British police station in 1995.
- Participants were randomly allocated to one of two conditions: the suspect (the same actor) spoke in either:
a standard accent
a Brummie accent. - The validity of these accents were tested before the study and more than 95% were able to identify the region of the Brummie accent.
- Moreover, in order to confirm the accents were matched, judges rated the accents to be a similar level of loudness. However, the Brummie accent had a higher speech rate, but this is a feature of regional accent and therefore was not changed
- After listening to the recording, participants rated the suspect’s guilt on a seven-point scale ranging from innocent to guilty. They also rated the suspect on a language attitudes instrument
Excerpt from the transcript of the taped exchange between suspect (S) and police officer (PO)
PO: Okay, would you like to just briefly tell me what your understanding is of the arrest?
S: Well, eh, I was told last night that I was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery/cheque fraud?
PO: Okay. Are you involved in that robbery/fraud?
S: No, I’m not.
PO: In any way, are you involved in that robbery/fraud?
S: Not in any way whatsoever. It’s absolutely not true, not true at all. I speak only for myself and I am not involved in any armed robbery/fraud, in any way whatsoever.
PO: Well the person that carried out this crime is described as male, White/Black put at 5’9” tall. . . .
Note: The type of crime and race of the suspect variables were manipulated by varying the transcript as indicated.
Results
- The ‘Brummie’ suspect was rated lower on superiority
- The ‘Brummie’ suspect was rated as more guilty (moderate strength)
- There was an interaction between Brummie accent/black suspect/blue collar worker with significantly higher guilt findings for this combination of variables
- Suspect’s ratings of guilt were predicted by higher ratings of ‘Superiority’ and ‘Attractiveness’.
- The results also demonstrated that the suspects levels of superiority and attractiveness significantly predicted guilt but that levels of dynamism didn’t.
- This suggests avenues for future research. Perhaps non-standard speakers are perceived as more guilty because their speech is less assured or less confident and so we associate this more with characteristics such as ‘shifty’ and ‘untrustworthy’.
Evaluation - Strengths
Usefulness of research: This study provides significant evidence that accent, race and type of crime committed by a particular individual all have an impact on whether someone is perceived as guilty or not. It is important that judges and juries are aware of these useful findings and that they are not affected by these factors when making a decision. The findings are also useful for lawyers, who should emphasise the importance of appearance on their clients in order to create a positive impression. This may be in the way that they dress and/or in the way that they speak.
Evaluation - Weaknesses
Validity: The ecological validity of this study is low: playing a tape recording of a police interview in which the race of the suspect is suggested and no other evidence is presented is not representative of a fuller picture that real life legal proceedings would present in a case. Therefore, there are clear generalisability issues with these findings. However, the methodology was high in internal validity due to careful matching of the accents.
Conducting socially sensitive research: The findings from this study have a potential impact on particular groups of people (black people, ‘Brummies’, and working class people) who may be treated in a discriminatory way in a legal context. This raises questions about the reliability of attributions of guilt because of prejudices we have. However, as the study may be lacking in the validity, we must be cautious about how we apply these findings.
Discuss methodological issues in research in psychology and the courtroom. [15] (how to answer)
This doesn’t specific Dixon so whilst you can use him, you can also bring in other research too (Stewart – suspects, Garcia and Griffit – witnesses)
Remember issues doesn’t necessarily mean bad things
Discuss = good and bad
You need 3 clear methodological issues here:
1) Validity issues
2) Socially sensitive research
3) Useful
