Explicit and implicit attitudes toward standard-Japanese and Osaka-dialect language use

Abstract

This article examines the effects of language use on explicit and implicit attitudes. We employed the matchedguise technique to measure participants' impressions of standard-Japanese and Osaka-dialect speakers. Implicit attitudes were assessed by the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The Osaka-dialect speaker was evaluated as warmer than the standard-Japanese speaker, suggesting that explicit attitudes toward the Osaka dialect have changed positively. On the other hand, the results for the impression of intelligence were consistent with the previous literature that the standard-Japanese speaker was seen as more intelligent than the Osaka-dialect speaker. Compared with explicit attitudes, the analyses of implicit attitudes revealed that participants showed a consistent implicit bias favoring standard-Japanese language use. The changing processes and relationships of explicit and implicit attitudes were discussed.