The (Lack of) Salience of T/V Pronouns in Professional Communication: Evidence from an Experimental Study for Belgian Dutch
Laura Rosseel,
Eline Zenner,
Fabian Faviana
et al.
Abstract:In their quest to find a suitable tone of voice in an informalizing society, many companies are confronted with the choice of using T or V pronouns in their B2C communications. This paper presents an experimental study addressing the question of whether the recipients of these messages actually notice the difference between being addressed with a T form, which carries social meanings of informality and proximity, or a more distant V form, and to what extent the presence of additional informal linguistic featur… Show more
“…More research on the impact of different forms of address on charitable donations in other languages is desirable. The literature shows that the impact of the usage of linguistic cues such as second-person pronouns on people's attitudes can vary not only by language, but also by culture and context (House and Kádár 2020;Truan 2022;Yu et al 2017;de Hoop et al 2023;Schoenmakers et al 2024;Razzaq et al 2024;Rosseel et al 2024). Therefore, it would be interesting to investigate whether the results we presented also apply to other languages or cultures.…”
Does it matter whether charitable organizations address potential donors with an informal or formal second-person pronoun in their appeal to donate money? This study shows that it does indeed make a difference. Using an informal pronoun of address can have a positive effect on intentions to donate money. An online experiment (n = 220) found that a charitable appeal to potential donors was more effective when an informal rather than a formal second-person pronoun was used in Dutch, particularly for altruistic people. We discuss the potential explanations of this effect, concentrating on the association between the informal pronoun of address and perceived closeness, and the generic versus deictic reference of informal pronouns of address in Dutch.
“…More research on the impact of different forms of address on charitable donations in other languages is desirable. The literature shows that the impact of the usage of linguistic cues such as second-person pronouns on people's attitudes can vary not only by language, but also by culture and context (House and Kádár 2020;Truan 2022;Yu et al 2017;de Hoop et al 2023;Schoenmakers et al 2024;Razzaq et al 2024;Rosseel et al 2024). Therefore, it would be interesting to investigate whether the results we presented also apply to other languages or cultures.…”
Does it matter whether charitable organizations address potential donors with an informal or formal second-person pronoun in their appeal to donate money? This study shows that it does indeed make a difference. Using an informal pronoun of address can have a positive effect on intentions to donate money. An online experiment (n = 220) found that a charitable appeal to potential donors was more effective when an informal rather than a formal second-person pronoun was used in Dutch, particularly for altruistic people. We discuss the potential explanations of this effect, concentrating on the association between the informal pronoun of address and perceived closeness, and the generic versus deictic reference of informal pronouns of address in Dutch.
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