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

In previous research, language attitude models assign a privileged status to language behavior as important factor that influence speaker evaluations. However, language behavior is always framed by extra-linguistic cues (e.g., speaker’s social group membership) that may affect evaluative outcomes (e.g., Myers-Scotton, 2006). Whereas most studies show a conceptual overlap between the evaluation of languages, national groups, and individual speakers, we examined whether language and nationality attitudes refer to distinct concepts that affect speaker evaluations. Moreover, dual-process theories argue that people make use of two types of strategies to process social objects, an explicit and an implicit processing strategy (e.g., Wilson, Lindsey, & Schooler, 2000). We transferred the explicit-implicit distinction to the field of language by examining implicit assessments with audio Implicit Association Tests and an affective priming task. Explicit assessments were measured with validated questionnaires. Our study findings (N = 82) in Luxembourg, a linguistically diverse country with three official languages (Luxembourgish, French, and German), revealed that explicit nationality attitudes had a significant influence on explicit speaker evaluations, while implicit nationality attitudes significantly affected implicit speaker evaluations. Hence, on implicit level, 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 in-group favoritism as well as the importance of nationality attitudes as potent factor that influence speaker evaluations is discussed in the light of its implications for future research.