Stereotypes in Accent Perception

There are many accents in the world, and they can differ from one language to another. Accents play a very valuable role in society to shape our perception of others through interacting and conversing. Although there are many prominent accents, some are perceived differently than others due to having bias towards a type of accent, sometimes unconsciously. From my experience and research, the way one perceives an accent is based on attraction to an accent, unconscious bias, and how an accent can be developed from one’s native tongue and the environment they grew up in.

Alexandra Kozlowski, an author in the field of psychology, in her article, “The Influence of Accents on Social Perception” (2015), implies that one’s accent affects how they are perceived by others whether it be in their own community or outside.

“Some accents are perceived to be more attractive than others, but this is mainly due to the stereotypes individuals have associated with them, as well as the preference for similar-sounding accents.”

According to Kozlowski there are many factors that decide how a person perceives an accent. Each person has a different perception of an accent which can lead to the creation of social groups where people tend to associate themselves with a culture and accent that is like their own. This leads to discrimination which can influence and affect various areas of a person daily life. Accents play a very important role in building social dynamics. I believe that it is in our nature to be attracted or involve ourselves in scenarios where we feel safe and accepted which can unfortunately lead to separation from adapting to a new environment or culture. Accepting other cultures and having an open mind can help in building a culture of acceptance and understanding which can be a way to minimize discrimination.

 

 

Dr. Pragya Agarwal, a behavior and data scientist, in her article “Accent Bias: How Can We Minimize Discrimination in The Workplace?” (2018), suggests that people tend to unintentionally develop a bias towards a certain type of accent. In her article, Agarwal says that an essential part of our identity is our accent. Studies indicate that it can take only about thirty seconds for a person to build a perception from an accent and language profile making fast assumptions of a person’s background and wealth status. It is also likely that everyone has a natural favoritism towards an accent that sounds like theirs and has a bias against an accent that is different from their own. We tend to build a ranking of accents that are widely accepted and used in media to those that are not well known and unique to certain regions. This also leads to us assigning status and intelligence to some accents over others. Agarwal is telling us that our accent is an essential part of our identity because not only does it dictate the social group, we become a part of it also leads to how others build a perception of us. It only takes a short amount of time for people to build perceptions of another even if it isn’t accurate. This is because humans naturally tend to have an unconscious favoritism towards accents that are like their own. It is easier to blend in and converse with others who share a similar tongue as yourself. This also stems from the use of certain accents over others in media. An example would be standard English that is always used in the news and TV shows, which makes many people accustomed to that variant of English compared to a New York accent that is well known but is disliked by both people from and not from New York. This is why some accents are held in higher regard or sound more intelligent because it is something that is more exposed and taught in school to promote children to speak English properly.

Additionally, when talking about accent biases, Dr. Pragya Agarwal spoke about her experience of first noticing her own bias towards an accent. Agarwal was caught off guard when she started to notice that her daughter was picking up a scouse accent which is from the city of Liverpool. At first, she seemed disappointed by making a remark about her daughter picking up the accent while sighing. This however made her question why she felt this way since she herself didn’t mind the accent at all and found it to the best part of the community in Liverpool. This realization sparked her to explore and learn about her bias against the scouse accent. This is a form of an unconscious bias although she believed that she had no problem with the scouse accent, she had negative thoughts about her daughter learning it. She gave some reasons why that could’ve been like it having disadvantages in a person’s career or maybe she did think it was inferior to standard English. There wasn’t really a right answer because she herself doesn’t know; it is an unconscious bias that developed on its own without her knowledge. I think that this scenario is similar for many people because although I enjoy the New York accent and find it very at home, I wouldn’t want my kids to pick it up because it is very direct and sounds rude although it isn’t meant that way.

Ghada Sadaka, an author on education and immigration, in her article “How do people perceive your foreign accent?” (2021), claims that our accent is what defines us, and it is the foremost basis of what we are judged upon, but it shouldn’t define us or our ambitions.

“Your mother tongue accent develops while in the womb and later plays a huge role in the way you pronounce and sound words. Kids are taught phonemic awareness and letter sounds at a very young age, which in turn stays with them and influences their accent when learning a foreign language. That’s why we struggle to replace familiar sounds with the ones for the language we are learning.”

Sadaka is sharing her thoughts on how accents are perceived with criticism although one doesn’t have much control over their accent. Though acceptance of immigrants and foreigners is being pushed all the time stereotypes and discrimination from a person’s accent is still very much prevalent. A very common form of discrimination is basing a person’s intelligence level on their ability to speak English. Although it is a very flawed concept, the use of English in mass media has pushed the narrative that those who struggle with English are somehow less intelligent. The author also talks about how a perron’s native tongue can very much influence their pronunciation of words as well as develop their accent. I strongly agree with this because from a young age we are taught by our parents to speak a certain way and that becomes the backbone of our accent and how sounds come off our tongue.

Given these points, an accent is very important from a social and individual aspect. The perception of an accent is a very common occurrence in our life and there are many factors that decide how we view one accent from another. Alexandra Kozlowski, Dr. Pragya Agarwal, and Ghada Sadaka all share the view that people have unconscious biases towards accents, and all agree that more should be done to stop discrimination based on a person’s accent. Accents are valuable to our identity, and it shouldn’t be used against us although unconscious favoritism is a natural occurrence among all people that can’t really be solved.

Works Cited