Power and phonetic accommodation

Abstract

Theories of speech accommodation claim that phonetic convergence to one’s interlocutor is automatic (Goldinger, 1998; Shockley et al., 2004). However, there is evidence that individual traits and social factors modulate accommodation so that speakers may even diverge from their interlocutor (Babel, 2010; Bourhis & Giles, 1977). This study investigates how talker’s personal sense of power and power relative to the interlocutor (“interpersonal power”) affect phonetic accommodation. Personal power was manipulated through a thought experiment in which participants described a time they felt powerful or powerless. Interpersonal power was manipulated through randomly assigned roles in a recorded interview with a confederate where the Inventor (powerless) pitched an entrepreneurial idea to the Investor (powerful). Participants were considered to have converged if the difference in pitch between the participant and confederate had decreased in post-interview versus pre-interview recordings. We found that though interpersonal power does not influence the direction or degree of accommodation, personal power does. Speakers with lower personal power diverged from their interlocutor (t = -2.1389, p = 0.04), indicating that an individual’s self-perception has a stronger effect on accommodation than the established roles in the interaction.