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Do We Judge Others By The Way They Speak? | Katherine Kinzler PhD

We gravitate to people who are like us; our “tribe”. One factor that we use to assume that others are like us, is by the way they talk. Not just the words they speak, but the accent that they use to communicate. And yes, we all have an accent!

When you open your mouth, you're often sharing something with the world, not just about who you are today, but about who the voices were, who were talking to you when you were a child. Click To Tweet

Since the way we speak is central to our identity, do we have control over it by altering our accent or by learning a new language? And what implications does our hidden linguistic bias have in the workplace and for discrimination laws?

Pioneering psychologist Katherine Kinzler PhD has spent years researching the way we talk and listen to voices. Katherine is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago and author of the recent book “How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do―And What It Says About You”. We talk with her about linguistic prejudices, and how she advocates for bilingualism, multilingual education and linguistic diversity.

Multilingualism can be such a positive thing for kids and for society. Click To Tweet

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Topics 

(4:16) Welcome to Katherine and speed round questions.

(6:00) Can language be both fixed and malleable at the same time?

(10:57) Why Katherine wrote a book about linguistic prejudice and valuing bilingualism.

(13:40) How do you define good communication?

(17:52) The implications of speech discrimination in the work place.

(20:40) Do we gravitate to people who share a similar linguistic pattern to ours?

(24:26) The value of multilingual education.

(26:11) How young children learn about language having social relevance.

(34:26) Our society teaches us to embed our kids with social norms.

(39:03) How music from different cultures influences young children.

(42:43) Grooving Session – linguistic prejudices and how we can overcome them.

© 2022 Behavioral Grooves

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AIRDATE: February 27, 2022 EPISODE 280

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Do We Judge Others By The Way They Speak? | Katherine Kinzler PhD

Featured Guest

Katherine Kinzler PhD

Featured Artists

Music with Mr. Dave