Journal of Undergraduate Research
Keywords
visual cues, linguistic cues, racial profiling, dialects
College
Humanities
Department
Linguistics and English Language
Abstract
Linguistic profiling1 has emerged as an area of research only within the last decade. Several researchers have shown that people who speak non-standard, ethnically-tied dialects are treated less favorably than their Standard American English (SAE)-speaking counterparts. However, no known studies have shown the relative importance of visual versus linguistic cues in profiling. The purpose of my project was to experimentally this by answering this question: Does one’s dialect have a greater bearing on racial judgments than skin color? Sadly, because this type of research has never really been done, we had to synthesize a new methodology. We did this by adapting aspects of established linguistic methodologies in order to fit our needs. This proved to be much more difficult and time-consuming than we had anticipated. Because of several setbacks with difficulties in selecting stimuli, obtaining permissions, and setting up procedures, we have not yet finished the experiment; however, we are well on our way and expect to finish our work by the end of March and hopefully publish our results in late spring.
Recommended Citation
Jennings, Alex and Baker-Smemoe, Dr. Wendy
(2013)
"Don’t Judge a Voice By Its Color: The Influence of Visual and Linguistic Cues on Racial Profiling,"
Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013:
Iss.
1, Article 940.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/940
