Attribution of guilt as a function of ethnic accent and type of crime

Abstract

Abstract The attribution of guilt to persons accused of a crime was investigated as a function of accent and type of crime. A 3 × 3 repeated measures design required three groups of subjects to rate three accents on their probability of having committed a particular crime. The accents were Received British Pronunciation (R.P.), Broad Australian and Asian. The subjects listened to a message in which the accused protested his innocence; guilt was evaluated on a scale from Innocent to Guilty. The three crimes were: (1) Embezzlement, (2) Damage to property, (3) Violence against a person. Results revealed no significant main effects but a highly significant interaction between accent and crime. Significant differences existed within and between R.P. and Broad Australian. No differences were found within the Asian accent as a function of type of crime, but differences were found between the Asian and European accents. More guilt was attributed to R.P. when the crime was theft; to the Australian accent in the cr...