Chameleon Effect of Language

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi.

My name is Kio, and I’m calling from L.A.

Kio.

Hi, Kio. How are you doing?

How are you spelling that?

It’s K-I-O.

Okay.

Kio.

Welcome to the show. How can we help?

Thanks. I have lived abroad several times, and I was living in London, and I don’t think I have a very strong Valley Girl accent, but some of my friends there would say, you know, you keep changing the way we talk, and now we’re saying awesome and totally. And they were saying that I was changing their accent, which to me was strange, because at the same time, I felt that my accent was adapting to the kind of colloquially, however you say, vocab of England. Like I started saying, I don’t know. Stuff is Brill or Naf or that sort of thing? Yeah. Instead of saying, give me a call, give us a ring and this and that. So I thought that was strange.

And another example, my good friends, one, the guy is American and his wife is British, and now they’re living in the U.S. And he still talks like a British person. I’m like, what are you saying? Like, he says, like, oh, what would you like for tea, meaning dinner? And I said, are you from the U.S.? Meanwhile, his wife is now developing more of an American accent. So I was wondering, I guess, is there such a thing as like a subconscious accent switch between people who are close to each other?

You have provided sufficient evidence to come to that conclusion, as have many linguists and many other people who study the human social animal. We have something called the chameleon effect, where we adopt the behaviors, including language, of the people around us. And it’s not just language. It’s gestures. It’s the way we stand. It’s how fast we move. It’s all these different things. They’re not really stuff that you’re taught. It’s not like your parents yelling at you to sit up straight. It’s that you realizing, for example, that everyone around you is sitting with their legs crossed, and you’re more likely to sit with your legs crossed too. Subconsciously. Subconsciously. You’re mirroring.

And all pack animals that have been studied do something of this kind, where the group cohesiveness depends upon them behaving a little bit like each other.

In order to make it clear that they belong.

And humans do this automatically.

Now, as you noted perfectly, by the way, as you noted, it’s stronger in some people than in others.

And some people have a really natural tendency to adapt subconsciously or unconsciously to whatever’s happening around them, and others don’t.

And it’s a little easier if you’re younger than if you’re older.

It’s really interesting, but what’s weird to me is that people are taking on, for example, my type of speech, whereas my type of speech is already changing than what is natural.

Well, this is going to make you feel good, I think.

I’ve mentioned this in a lot of different ways on the show, but whether or not we pick up the speech patterns of another person depends heavily upon our relationship with them.

If we respect them, if we admire them, if we’re attracted to them, or the reverse is true, if they respect us or admire us or find us attractive.

So your British friends probably really liked you a lot.

They think you’re awesome.

And you were an influential person in their lives while you were there.

That’s how you had that effect on them.

It’s pretty cool, right?

Awesome.

Everybody wants to be liked, and it comes out in language.

That’s really neat.

Yeah, it sure is.

Thank you so much.

Now, I feel like I finally have a phrase or an explanation for this, because I feel like it happens a lot, or I see it happening a lot.

It’s true.

That’s cool.

Thank you so much for your call, Kyo.

Thank you guys so much.

I appreciate it.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

You too.

Bye-bye.

Kyo’s in a perfectly good position.

An American from California going to London and immediately finds herself changing and the people around her changing happens to all of us to one degree or another.

Reminds me of that Laurie Anderson song, Language is a Virus.

Make sure it is.

You know, sneeze and infect people around you.

Well, we have the penicillin for the language virus.

Give us a call at 877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.