The Effects of Speech Rate Similarity on Compliance: Application of Communication Accommodation Theory

This experiment tested a communication accommodation theory (CAT) explanation for the effects of speaker speech rate on compliance with a request for help. It was predicted that communicators' speech rate similarity increases social attractiveness and creates relational obligations to comply. Nine speech rates were presented to assess preferences for speech rate and speech rate similarity. Four requests for help, varying from unacceptably slow to unacceptably fast, were presented. As predicted, speech rate similarity was associated with greater intimacy, immediacy, and sociability/character interpretations. Speech-rate similarity was not directly related to compliance, but enhanced immediacy ratings were linked to greater compliance. Nonverbal cues that indicate relational involvement or immediacy may be more instrumental in creating obligations to comply than cues wbich communicate sociability and character.