Does criticism in a foreign accent hurt less?

Evaluative statements are routine in interpersonal communication but may evoke different responses depending on the speaker’s identity. Here, thirty participants listened to direct compliments and criticisms spoken in native or foreign accents and rated the speaker's friendliness as their electroencephalogram was recorded. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were examined for (1) vocal speech cues time-locked to statement onset and (2) emotive semantic attributes at the sentence-final word. Criticisms from native speakers were perceived as less friendly than from foreign speakers, whereas compliments did not differ. ERPs revealed listeners rapidly used acoustic information to differentiate speaker identity and evaluative attitude (N100, P200), then selectively monitored vocal attitude expressed by native speakers in the LPP time window. When the evaluative word was heard, native accents contextually modulated early semantic processing (N400). Words of criticism increased the LPP irrespective of accent. Our data showcase unique neurocognitive and behavioural effects of speaker accent on interpersonal communication.