Foreign advantage, regional stigma: A multivariate analysis of foreign and regional accent evaluations in job candidate assessment
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2025-08-15
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en
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This study investigated how accent type (foreign vs. regional) and accent strength (slight vs. strong) jointly influence social evaluations of job candidates in a verbal-guise experiment. Dutch participants (N = 458) rated audio recordings of job applicants speaking with slight or strong foreign (i.e., French or German) or regional (i.e., Limburgish or Twents) accents, or with a Standard Dutch accent (control condition), on a range of social dimensions: processing fluency, inferred motive, social categorization, attitudinal evaluations (e.g., competence, status, likeability, and dynamism), and hirability. Results revealed that strongly regionally accented speakers were consistently evaluated less favorably than strongly foreign-accented speakers across inferred motive, dynamism, competence, status, likeability, and hirability. Surprisingly, foreign-accented speakers received similar ratings to standard-accented speakers. These findings highlight the importance of examining both accent type and strength and underscore the need for a multivariate approach to capture the complex interplay of factors shaping listeners’ judgements.
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