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Jay Eidelman
What you say and how you say it tells
listeners a lot
about who you are.
Being polite, direct, and to the point may
hold the key
to getting what you need from people, but for
some it
isn't enough. Research has shown that even
over the
phone, the manner in which people speak
reveals a
great deal about their race, ethnicity, and
socio-economic background and listeners
sometimes use these cues in a discriminatory
manner. "Linguistic profiling," or assigning
racial
characteristics on the basis of speaking
voice, is a
term coined by Washington University
professor John
Baugh. He has conducted a multi-year study
that has
shown that companies sometimes use racial
cues to
exclude people from housing and employment.
In test
calls to classified ads, Baugh's study found
that calls
using African-American or Latino speaking
patterns
went unreturned significantly more often than
"white-sounding" calls to the same ad.
Alternatively, callers who sounded Latino or
African American would be told that the job
or apartment was no longer available while
"white-sounding" callers would be given
appointments. In no cases did the
callers provide any information about
educational
background, credit scores, or employment
history. The idea for the study occurred to
Baugh while looking for a house. Agents were
happy to make appointments over the phone
based on his professorial tone and general
dialect, but when Baugh, who is African
American, would arrive for the showing, the
agents' faces reflected surprise
that the caller whom they had previously assumed
was white, was, in fact, black.
By contrast, research demonstrates that
companies who actively screen potential
applicants tend to hire more minority
workers. The implications for Consumer
Reporting Agencies are clear; background
screening, when used judiciously, can be as
beneficial to individuals as to businesses.
Jay Eidelman is a marketing and
communications
consultant
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