Linguistic Profiling

One of the linguistic mailing lists I'm on mentioned that ABC News had a piece about linguistic profiling on tonights news. It is an interesting facet to what we are calling 'Racial Profiling' these days but used to be called 'Discrimination'. It is incredibly pervasive since how you hear someone can alter how you think about them without you consciously noticing it. Take the test and see how you do.

Dr. Clifford Nass studies how people react to voices and has some research on gender stereotyping in computer generated speech.

"Our studies show," reports Dr. Nass, "that directions from a female voice are perceived as less accurate than those from a male voice, even when the voices are reading the exact same directions. Deepness helps, too. It implies size, height, and authority. Deeper voices are more credible."

The abstract is an interesting read and thought provoking for a community who really wants to believe we are completely magnanimous. Perhaps more people who are willing to look at such unpleasant problems underneath the veneer of "Equal" will help eradicate this in a few generations. I'll keep on practising my Darth Vader voice until then....