Professor Lacey Wade indicates that "stereotypes about Southern speech trump experience"

An article about Lacey Wade, Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Department appeared in KU Today. The study she is working on relates to behavioral mimicry and stereotypes held about Southern accents.  Wade focuses on expectation-driven convergence. Research participants shift their speech to what they think a southern accent should sound like.  They looked at whether the participants were paying attention to what they were told or what that person actually sounds like.  The answers are different depending on whether thy were from the South or not.  The article can be read in its entirety at KU Today, edition from Tuesday, January 23.