Purpose
As far as we can tell there are no other studies that
have analyzed the relationship between Canadian
pride and language use in an experimental context.
Our purpose was to manipulate the level of pride
that participants felt towards their Canadian identity
by having them watch a short video clip and then
answer questions about their use of the expression
“Eh” in various contexts.
“Think about it, eh?”
This is an example of
the Canadian-typical
phrases we used to
measure participant’s
responses to
Canadianisms.
1. Participants will report they use more
Canadianisms if they are primed with
Canadian pride.
2. Participants will report they have positive
emotional reactions to Canadianisms if they
are primed with Canadian pride.
We assigned participants to one of two conditions. Those
in the experimental condition watched the Molson
Canadian commercial “I Am Canadian” and then
answered a questionnaire about phrases containing “Eh.”
The control condition watched a Bud Light commercial
called “Clothing Drive” and filled out the same
questionnaire. Each participant rated their use the
phrases from “Not Very Often” to “Extremely Often,” and
their emotional reactions to them from “Very Negative”
to “Very Positive.” We distributed the surveys online
through various social media.
I Am Canadian
Experimental Condition
Further Research is needed to figure out whether or not
there is a relationship between pride and language use
among Canadian English speakers. Future studies should
include longer priming techniques as well as different videos
that don’t involve drinking beer, which distracted our
participants from the pride-related content of the videos.
The Standard Error of
the Mean is indicated
by error bars. The
overlap shows that the
groups are not different.
Our Hypotheses
Our Methods of Data Collection
Further Research
Rachele Benjamin, Christy Harris
Graph of Mean Differences Between
Groups
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Reported Use
Experimental
Emotional Reaction
Control
Results
The results we obtained did not support either of our hypotheses.
Clothing Drive
Control Condition
The mean scores for Reported Use were 15.15 for the experimental
condition and 16.06 for the control condition. After conducting an
independent samples t test, we obtained the result t = -.88. The probability
of obtaining this result by chance is 38% (p=.38) which is much higher than
the level of significance α=.05 (or 5%).
The mean Emotional Reaction scores were 15.91 for the experimental
condition and 15.24 for the control condition. An independent samples t
test yielded a value of t = 1.03. The probability of obtaining this value by
chance is 31%. (p=.31). Again, this is much higher than the significance
level of α=.05.