Perceptions of Dialect and Code-Switching: Intergroup Evaluation and Attitudes Toward Regional Dialect Among Italian Youth

Linguistic variation plays an important role in shaping social perception and intergroup evaluation. The alternation between standard Italian and regional dialects is an increasingly common feature of everyday speech among Italian youth, reflecting broader shifts in sociolinguistic norms and communicative practices. This study investigates how code-switching is perceived in comparison to dialect-only speech across three Italian regions: Campania, Veneto, and Tuscany. A total of 220 participants (aged 18–35) evaluated four audio narratives varying by speaker region and linguistic strategy. Mixed-effects models showed that code-switching was consistently associated with more favorable social and communicative evaluations. Participants also reported stronger identification with code-switching voices in informal contexts. Beyond general trends, the results revealed ingroup and outgroup biases, with Campanian participants showing marked ingroup preference, while Venetan participants responded more neutrally. Regional stereotypes also emerged, with Campanian speakers receiving higher ratings on warmth- and empathy-related traits, whereas Venetan speakers were more often preferred in employment-related judgments. The findings suggest that using code-switching may not only reflect social identities, but also actively shape intergroup evaluations and the salience of group boundaries in communication.