Collectivism-Individualism in Perceptions of Speech Rate

Abstract

A cross-cultural comparison was made to investigate the relative effects of speech rate in Korea and the United States for perceptions of the speaker's credibility. Employing a three-way factorial design (Speech Rate x Speaker Gender x Culture Type), this study found that rapid delivery can be used as an effective means of enhancing one's credibility in the United States and that this principle can be generalized to Korean female speakers. On the other hand, slow delivery is more effective in increasing the credibility of Korean male speakers. Moreover, regardless of culture type, the data indicate no main effect of the speaker's gender on credibility, except for perceptions of the speaker's competence.