Department of Psychology, University of Alberta.
Health Commun. 2020 May;35(6):726-730. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2019.1584779. Epub 2019 Mar 5.
Many doctors work or train in foreign countries and speak with a foreign accent. People sometimes assume that a person who speaks with a foreign accent possesses negative traits and personality characteristics. The purpose of this study is to test if doctors who speak with a foreign accent are perceived as less competent than doctors who speak with a standard accent. Both Caucasian Canadian and Chinese Canadian undergraduates rated the competence of a doctor speaking English with either a standard Canadian accent or a Chinese accent. The doctor was delivering either good or bad news about the patient's cholesterol levels or cancer. Previous research has shown that when reminded of death, participants favor in-group members. We found that the Chinese-accented doctor's competence was judged more negatively than the standard Canadian accented doctor by all participants. Both doctors were deemed less competent when delivering bad news than good news. These results suggest that foreign-accented doctors face biases about their competence from their patients.
许多医生在国外工作或培训，并带有外国口音。人们有时会假设带有外国口音的人具有负面的特征和个性特征。本研究的目的是测试带有外国口音的医生是否被认为不如带有标准口音的医生更有能力。加拿大白人和华裔加拿大本科生都对带有标准加拿大口音或中文口音的医生的能力进行了评估。医生用英语传达关于患者胆固醇水平或癌症的好消息或坏消息。先前的研究表明，当参与者想起死亡时，他们会偏向于群体成员。我们发现，所有参与者都认为带有中文口音的医生的能力比带有标准加拿大口音的医生更差。当传达坏消息而不是好消息时，两位医生都被认为能力更差。这些结果表明，带有外国口音的医生会因其患者的能力而面临偏见。
