Judging people and their language use: How attitudes towards languages and language users affect speaker evaluations in multilingual contexts

In multilingual contexts, such as in Luxembourg, individuals are exposed to various languages spoken by different inhabitants. An important question within the framework of person perception is to what extent language attitudes influence our evaluative responses (i.e., differential perceptions of languages effect perceptions of speakers of these languages). However, multilingualism not only concerns the differential perceptions of languages but also refers to perceptions of (nationality) groups speaking such languages. The present project focuses on the interplay of attitudes towards languages and (national) groups of language users and their impact on speaker evaluations. To this extent we are adapting and testing a model of person perception based on linguistic cues. In addition, the proposed theoretical model assigns particular importance to the distinction between implicit and explicit information processing, which may be involved in multilinguals’ attitudes towards languages and language users.