The impact of task and categorical cues on social influence Fluency and ethnic accent as cues to competence in task groups

A theoretical extension of Berger, Webster, Ridgeway, and Rosenholtz's (1986) theory of status cues is proposed, which argues that task cues which contradict expectations based on categorical cues may reduce or overcome the effects of the latter on status processes. Possible mechanisms for these differential effects were suggested. Two studies examined the relative impact of verbal fluency and ethnic accent on perceptions of competence, and on acceptance of influence in a group task. In Study 1 tape-recorded passages read by Greek- and Anglo-Australian speakers were judged by independent groups on rating scales which tapped three dimensions: intelligence, competence/education, (referred to as status dimensions), and solidarity. Fluency of speaker affected raters' judgments of confidence and intelligence, but not solidarity; ethnic identity of speaker affected only ratings of intelligence. Tape