Accent Bias and Perceptions of Professional Competence in England

Abstract

Unequal outcomes in professional hiring for individuals from less privileged backgrounds have been widely reported in England. Although accent is one of the most salient signals of such a background, its role in unequal professional outcomes remains underexamined. This paper reports on a large-scale study of contemporary attitudes to accents in England. A large representative sample ( N = 848) of the population in England judged the interview performance and perceived hirability of “candidates” for a trainee solicitor position at a corporate law firm. Candidates were native speakers of one of five English accents stratified by region, ethnicity, and class. The results suggest persistent patterns of bias against certain accents in England, particularly Southern working-class varieties, though moderated by factors such as listener age, content of speech, and listeners’ psychological predispositions. We discuss the role that the observed bias may play in perpetuating social inequality in England and encourage further research on the relationship between accent and social mobility.

The influence of linguistic profiling on perceived employability: a new application of the systems theory framework of career development

“…Other studies examined perceived employability under experimental conditions as rated by members of the general population (e.g., Hunt and Denim, 2022;Levon et al, 2021;Poels, 2021;Seggie et al, 1986); experienced employment interviewers and recruiters (e.g., Atkins, 1993;De La Zerda and Hopper, 1979;Hopper, 1977;Voigt, 1994); human resource management professionals (Blair and Conner, 1978;Carlson and McHenry, 2006;Terrell and Terrell, 1983;Rey, 1977); entrepreneurs (Seggie et al, 1986); and other professionals with managerial experience (e.g., Timming, 2017). In the studies where non-student listeners and raters were used, there were four experiments that concluded no differences in rating of employability based on vocal cues (Gomlich, 2020;Poels, 2021;Seggie et al, 1986;Voigt, 1994).…”

“…The role of these processes for understanding the influence of linguistic profiling on perceived employability is evident by the scenarios constructed for the experimental studies. Among the studies, researchers routinely created a simulated interview scenario for job applicants (e.g., De La Zerda and Hopper (1979) Atkins, 1993;De La Zerda and Hopper, 1979;Deprez-Sims and Morris, 2013;Faassen, 2019;Goatley-Soan and Baldwin, 2018;Levon et al, 2021;Raki c et al, 2011). As an example, Hideg et al (2022) asked their student listeners and raters to read a job description for a student worker position and listen to a manipulated recording of a potential job candidate expressing their qualifications for the position.…”

Everyone has an accent

“…Varieties associated with (post-)industrial areas like those, also retain strong associations with a lower socioeconomic status (similarly to how RP is associated with the upper class). In the context of the UK specifically, these associations still matter as some accents are considered to have "higher status" which can result in linguistic discrimination [6,7,8]. Studies also show that second language speakers and those perceived to have a "foreign accent" are affected by language-based discrimination, for example in employment [9,10].…”

Language variation and algorithmic bias: understanding algorithmic bias in British English automatic speech recognition

“…Nevertheless, accent discrimination and open prejudice against speakers of particular accents (especially secondlanguage speakers) or people who use particular linguistic features appears more socially acceptable than other forms of discrimination. Recent work shows that accent discrimination still plays a role high-prestige hiring contexts such as corporate law, although not all regional accents are equally stigmatised [29,85]. Accent bias has also been documented in teacher training and schools in the UK, affecting both first and second language speakers of English [11,37].…”