[9] Communication accommodation thus, becomes a tool to emphasize group distinctiveness in a positive way, and strengthen the individual's social identity.
In this experiment, when individuals believed that the person from the different group used language convergence to reduce cultural barriers, they evaluated it more positively than when they attributed it to the pressures of the situation.
"[14] The process of intergroup distinctiveness, as theorized by Tajfel argues, "... when members of different groups are in contact, they compare themselves on dimensions that are important to them, such as personal attributes, abilities, material possessions and so forth.
For instance, when a young person talks to the seniors in the family, he should avoid using jargons among his generation to show respect and to communicate more smoothly.
Thus, when one individual shifts speech and non-verbal behaviors in order to assimilate to the other it can result in a more favorable appraisal of him, that is: when convergence is perceived positively it is likely to enhance both the conversation and the attraction between the listener and the speaker.
[16] "Given that communication features are often core dimensions of what it is to be a member of a group, divergence can be regarded as a very important tactic of displaying a valued distinctiveness from the other.
In a 2001 study, doctors and patients discussed musculoskeletal disorders and it was observed that there were miscommunications that occurred because the participants chose to converge during the communication rather than to accentuate their position differences.
Socio-historical factors that influence communicators include political or historical relations between nations, and different religious or ideological views of the two groups participating in the conversation.
They referred to this as "the applied perspective" that showed accommodation theory as a vital part of day-to-day activity as opposed to solely being a theoretical construct.
This can be an incredibly important choice to make, especially in a business setting, because an incorrect judgment in this area of communication could unwittingly promote negative reactions between the two or more parties involved.
These scholars questioned the "convergence-divergence frame [and] believe that conversations are too complex to be reduced simply" to the processes of the communication accommodation theory.
[23] They "challenge the notion that people's accommodation can be explained by just the practice of [convergence-divergence]",[23] raising the question of the potential consequences to the listener and speaker if they "both converge and diverge in conversations", as well as whether race or ethnicity play a role in the process.
According to mainstream sociolinguistic studies, age is regarded as a variable only to the extent that it may show patterns of dialectal variation within speech communities across time.
Even though young people are more likely to perceive the old by multiple stereotypes, the elderly are negatively evaluated in most situations,[27] resulting in a reduction of meaningful communication.
[24] Older speakers might be seen as in physical and mental decline; slowing down with age and unable to keep pace with the current social norms.
These young speakers, attempting to differentiate themselves from this image, will talk faster, use fashionable colloquialism and slang, and express more "modern" ideas and values in their communication with seniors.
[29] Factors such as negative ageist stereotypes and unique features of the older adult patient-physician interaction can result in miscommunication between physicians and patients.
They found that they hold different attitudes towards personal preferences, professional behaviors, self-efficacy of technology use, and ideas surrounding work-life balance.
Their findings suggests that their ability to adapt to the socially accepted norm in these workplaces will slow communication, and perhaps lead to divergence amongst them, but also give way to positive changes.
In 2019, Natalie Kompa focused her thesis on this exact ideal, finding that Gen Z's commitment to their organizations, trust, job satisfaction, and feelings of control mutuality, were highly correlated with communication transparency.
Currently, "literature explaining gender differences in nonverbal communication often revolves around asymmetrical power relationships between males and females, which could be interpreted as another explanation of the theory of speech accommodation".
[46] In a study conducted by Young (1998) for instance, high proficiency Chinese English Language Second Speakers interviewed by individuals with a higher degree of social convergence in terms of ethnicity, sex, occupation, educational level, place of origin, and age were significantly more likely to converge to their interlocutor's standard English plural conjunction than those who were interviewed by subjects that differed more in terms of these social characteristics.
In this study the questions were asked by an English speaker with an RP-sounding accent "...who at one point arrogantly challenged their reasons for what he called "... a dying language which had a dismal future.
A study conducted by Tamburrini, Cinnirella, Jansen, and Bryden, Twitter (currently X) users were found to change their language or word usage when conversing with different partners on the app.
[56] Another study regarding social media found that brands that interact and accommodate users online received positive assessments from recipients.
A study done by Christopherson discovered that when receiving requests from library constituents, librarians were more apt to use professional language in their responses compared to the causal dialogue of the sender.
Studies show that the public believes police officers, overall, should work on being more community-oriented and accommodating to all of its citizens, not only to reduce tension, anxiety, and stress, but to build trust and satisfaction between both parties.
However, even with these accommodations, the study suggested it was necessary for there to remain an understanding of the higher power, so that in the case in life-threatening situations, officers can continue to actively and effectively uphold society.
In each recording, the main researcher (referred to as BC) specifically searched for five strategies of CAT: approximation, interpretability, discourse management, emotional expression and interpersonal control.
S'hiri recorded five Tunisian Arabic speakers (M1, M2, W1, W2, and W3) who worked at two different broadcasting companies and found that they did indeed converge linguistically to their Sharqi co-workers.