Person perception and language: A case of English words in Croatian

•In Croatia, as in many other languages, English words have become common in informal communication.•More frequent use of English words is related with higher estimations in the social attractiveness category.•The use of English words has become an important cue in person perception.

Research on language attitudes has shown that speech style plays an important role in social evaluation. In Croatia, English words commonly occur in everyday communication, which could affect the way we perceive other people. This study aims to investigate the relation between English words and person perception. 200 Croatian elementary school students, adolescents and young adults were given one of the three versions of the same text, varying in the frequency of English words, and a questionnaire to evaluate personal characteristics of the author of the text. The results showed that frequent use of English words was related to higher estimations of social attractiveness, indicating that the use of English words has become an important cue in person perception.