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

A great deal of information is extracted from spoken exchanges, independent of content. Indeed, the same information can be conveyed in different manners across time and space in light of the goals of the interlocutors, potentially leading individuals to emphasize, modulate, or mask certain vocal characteristics for social advantages. However, no research has examined our perceptions of the same person speaking two closely related dialects separated by a relatively small geographic distance. The current experiment examined perceptions of the same men asked to speak Scottish Standard English (majority national dialect) versus Dundonian (minority national dialect), focusing on an array of well-studied traits in research on social perceptions. We observed robust positive effects of Scottish Standard English on perceived attractiveness and competence, with almost identical large effect sizes. By shaping perception on some of our measured trait dimensions, dialect may impact perceptions of these men as potential dating partners, allies, and/or leaders. In sum, the same man can be treated differently based on the dialect they switch to, both inadvertently and of the speaker’s own volition. These findings can motivate further research into geographic differences in social perception and communication/interaction at both narrow and broad geographic bandwidths.