The influence of language and nationality attitudes on speaker evaluations: Explicit versus implicit information processing

Previous language attitude models assign a privileged status to language behavior as important factor that influence speaker evaluations. Moreover, language is framed by extra-linguistic cues (e.g., speaker’s social group membership) that may affect evaluative outcomes (e.g., Myers-Scotton, 2006). In previous research, a conceptual overlap exist between the evaluations of languages, nationality groups, and individual speakers. Consequently, the distinction between language and nationality attitudes has not been addressed. Moreover, dual-process theories argue that people hold two types of attitudes towards the same object, an explicit and an implicit attitude (e.g., Wilson, Lindsey, & Schooler, 2000). Thus, we examined whether language and nationality attitudes affect speaker evaluations, both on an explicit and implicit level. Explicit assessments were examined with questionnaires and implicit assessments were measured with audio Implicit Association Tests and an affective priming task. Our study findings (N = 79) in Luxembourg, a linguistically diverse country with three official languages, revealed that implicit nationality attitudes significantly predicted implicit speaker evaluations such that a stronger implicit preference for the Luxembourgish national group was associated with an increase in the preference for speakers of the Luxembourgish national group. This implicit in-group favoritism is discussed in the light of its implications for future research.