Nonnative physicians as message sources: Effects of accent and ethnicity on patients' responses to AIDS prevention counseling

Shifting demographics in the medical professions place increasing numbers of North American patients in contact with physicians of non-Western ethnolinguistic backgrounds. Extrapolating from previous language and attitude research in other professional contexts, there is reason to suspect that American patients may have negative responses to nonnative Western-English-speaking physicians (NNWESPs). Participants listened to an AIDS prevention message delivered in one of three accents: highly marked South Asian, moderately marked South Asian, and standard American. These were associated with either a male ethnic South Asian or a male Angle-American physician. Outcome measures included the Speech Evaluation Instrument, judged professional competence, message recall, and intention to comply. Results indicate small effects for perceived accent and ethnicity on evaluational reactions to physicians. Recall and intention to comply were immune from effects of physician ethnolinguistic diversity. Results invite replication using other medical topics, other language varieties, and other populations of listeners and patients.