THE ROLE OF SPEECH ACCOMMODATION AND CRIME TYPE IN ATTRIBUTION OF GUILT

In this experiment we examined the attribution of guilt as a function of speech accommodation and crime type. The subjects (129 White, Engli sh-speaking, South African students) listened to tape-recorded exchang es between a Coloured, Cape Afrikaans-speaking criminal suspect and a White, English-speaking interrogator. The subjects were asked to rate the suspect on a 7-point scale ranging from innocent (7) to guilty (1) . The independent variables were (a) type of language shift (convergen ce, partial divergence, complete divergence) and (b) type of crime (bl ue-collar, white-collar). As we predicted (based on speech accommodati on theory), the suspects who converged into English were rated as sign ificantly less guilty than those who diverged into Cape Afrikaans. Fur thermore, the suspects accused of blue-collar crimes were more often d eemed guilty than were those accused of white-collar crimes (cf. Seggi e, 1983).