Same person, different personality? Systematic differences in listener’s perceptions of personality characteristics in the same men speaking closely related language varieties.

Independent of the content of our speech, a great deal of information is extracted from vocal exchanges for effective social interaction. The same information can be exchanged in a different manner across time and space in light of the goals of the interlocutors, potentially leading individuals to accentuate, modulate or conceal their voice to others. While the matched guise paradigm has shed light on perceptions of speech from native versus non-native speakers, no research to our knowledge has adapted this paradigm to investigate perceptions of the same person speaking two closely related language varieties separated by a relatively small geographic distance, where individuals may switch between them in their home location for social advantages. The current experiment examined perceptions of men speaking Scottish Standard English (majority national dialect) versus Dundonian (minority national dialect), focusing on an array of traits that are generally common in research on social perceptions based on surface characteristics. The experiment revealed robust positive effects of Scottish Standard English on perceived attractiveness and competence, with almost identical large effect sizes. Dialect influence perception on some of the measured trait dimensions, in ways that may impact interactions with men as potential dating partners, allies, and/or leaders. Our research suggests that the same man can be treated differently based on the dialect they switch to, which may impact social outcomes both inadvertently and of the speaker’s own volition. These findings can motivate further research on the role of the social brain hypothesis in both voice production and perception, as well as geographic differences in social perception and interaction at both narrow and broad geographic bandwidths, bridging perspectives from standard social science models and evolutionary social psychology.