Anxious voice and avoidant language in interaction with a woman wearing an Islamic headscarf: field-experimental evidence from the Paris metro
Résumé
In recent years physiological indexes of emotion have made their comeback as indicators of prejudice, but vocal measures have lagged behind. Based on a field experiment involving live interactions in a public place, the study examines intergroup anxiety as it manifests in the voice and in verbal behavior. Two competing predictions are put to test drawing on the “intergroup anxiety model”. According to the first prediction, the headscarf should have a positive main effect on anxiety (indexed primarily by vocal cues of arousal) and verbal avoidance (as the reverse of verbal intimacy). According to the second prediction, a cross-over interaction between the headscarf and the sex of the participant should lead to an increase in arousal and a decrease in intimacy among males, but to the opposite response among females. The results confirm the prediction of a positive main effect of the hijab on primary acoustic indexes of arousal and on avoidance as manifested in the pragmatics of language, belying the rival prediction of a cross-over interaction. The study suggest that, in the quest for ecological validity, the voice can be used in a field setting as a direct indicator of bodily activation in intergroup encounters, unobtrusively and economically.
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