An Association Between Speech Rate and Politeness

Ravit Nussinson; Chen Dahbash; Ayelet Hatzek; Elena Stephan; Nira Liberman

doi:10.1177/19485506261447555

An Association Between Speech Rate and Politeness

Ravit Nussinson
, Chen Dahbash
, Ayelet Hatzek
, Elena Stephan
, Nira Liberman

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Four preregistered studies (N = 369) demonstrate a relationship between speech rate and politeness: participants experienced slower (/faster) versions of a foreign-language message as more (/less) compatible with politeness (Study 1); intended to speak more slowly (/faster) to convey more (/less) politeness (Studies 2a and 2b); and read a pre-written message more slowly when intending to be more polite (Study 3). Findings show the association between speech rate and politeness is robust, does not depend on content, and does not even require comprehension. Drawing on established theories of politeness, we suggest that speech rate may reflect and regulate three factors that influence politeness: the status of the addressee, the imposition placed on the addressee by the message, and the social distance between speaker and addressee. We discuss implications vis-à-vis construal level theory, which suggests a relationship between psychological distance and speed via social distance.

Original language	English
Journal	Social Psychological and Personality Science
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506261447555
State	Published - 27 May 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Keywords

communication
politeness
pragmatics
psychological distance
social distance
social perception
speed
status

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10.1177/19485506261447555

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An Association Between Speech Rate and Politeness

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