Discussion
Within the nonstandard conditions, participants evaluated products more favorably when they discounted the accent than when they used the accent as diagnostic information. Yet when presented with the standard accent caused a halo effect wherein the product was always viewed favorably. This is consistent with the overarching positive influence of the imposed norm hypothesis associated with the more broadly standardized British accent (Giles et al. 1974; Preston and Long 2002; Well 1982) and suggests that consumers effort lessly or unintentionally perceive standard accents more favorability. This favorability extends to the advertised product. To examine how participants perceived a message depending on the relevance of the source of the accented sender, we varied the source of the accent between that of a product spokesperson and an on-air DJ. As the DJ is not chosen by the produce manager, the DJ’s accent does not represent a strategic choice and should not influence perceptions of the product. Thus Study 3 demonstrated the individuals transfer their attitude about an accent to the product even when the accent comes from an unintentional source. Note that varying the DJ accent required a change in ad location across conditions within the copy, which further generalizes the results relative to Study 2 where we control for ad location.