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Part of
Risk Discourse and Responsibility
Edited by Annelie Ädel and Jan-Ola Östman
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 336] 2023
► pp. 190–212

Chapter 8
The effects of using machine translation on perceptions of source credibility

ORCID logo | Åbo Akademi University

Machine translation has great potential for increasing the reach and spread of risk communication in multi-lingual settings. However, the social psychological effects of communicating via machine translation applications remain unknown. This study takes a first step to address this research gap. An online experiment with between-participants design was conducted to investigate the effects of using machine translation on participants’ perceptions of source credibility. Participants were asked to navigate a map of a foreign city and follow the route directions that were given to them by a person in a video either in their first language or using a machine translation application. Regression models were used to analyze task performance, perceptions of task difficulty, and perceptions of source credibility. Contrary to expectations, the results show no significant effect of using machine translation on the perceptions of source credibility. Implications for risk communication and future research are discussed.

Keywords: consecutive interpreting, machine interpreting, machine translation, risk communication, simultaneous interpreting, source credibility, speech synthesis, technology-mediated communication
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Related work on source credibility, trust, and technology-mediated communication
  • 3.Methods
    • 3.1Participant sample
    • 3.2Independent variables and experimental design
    • 3.3Dependent variables and methods of analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Task performance
    • 4.2Perceived difficulty of the task
    • 4.3Source credibility
  • 5.Discussion and implications for risk communication
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.336.08leh
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