It has long been said that having a posh accent can help you get ahead in life and boost your career prospects.
Now, scientists at the University of Cambridge have bolstered that theory and found that those who speak with received pronunciation (RP) are perceived as smarter, more educated and richer than people with other accents.
Those who use the Queen’s English – either Standard Southern British English (SSBE) or RP – are also considered to be the least likely to be a criminal as well as the least working class and least aggressive.
The findings come from a study of 180 Britons who listened to audio clips of people with 10 different accents. Participants were asked to give their opinion on the individual’s personality based solely on the accent, not what they were talking about.
As well as SSBE/RP, participants were asked for their thoughts on the accents of people from Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Newcastle.
Scousers were deemed to be the most likely to exhibit criminal behaviour, followed by people from Bradford, Newcastle and Londoners with a Cockney accent.
RP was found to be the least criminal-sounding voice, followed by Belfast and Glasgow accents.
While people with RP accents were perceived the least likely to commit crimes overall, they were, however, deemed to be the third most likely to touch another person inappropriately, behind those with a Cockney and Scouse accent.
Alice Paver, the study lead author and PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, said this finding “may indicate shifting perceptions of the type of man who “can and does commit sexual offences”.
She told The Telegraph that high-profile sexual crimes committed by people in power has likely reshaped the public’s perception of a sex offender.
“Sex crimes are often about power and control, and if the way you speak makes you sound like you’ve got high social status, then it’s not a stretch to think people assume this translates across to your behaviour too,” Ms Paver said.
“But I think this also probably speaks to generally the British public having a less clearly established idea of what a sex offender is like; it’s much less clear cut and associated with social class than their image of a thief or a vandal.”
Many people have tried to shed their regional accent in favour of RP in a bid to further themselves, including Robert Lindsay, the Derby-born actor, who did so “to be a little better than where I came from”, he has said previously.
But while RP speakers have many benefits as a result of their accent, it does have some drawbacks, the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Communication, found.
“We also observed some other negative stereotypes about RP speakers; they were the most likely to report a relative to the police for a minor offence, and the least likely to stand up for someone being harassed,” Ms Paver said.
The study also investigated how accents influence a person’s perception of various characteristics, not just likelihood to be a criminal.
They ranked accents, based on participant opinions, for how working class they are, as well as aggression, confidence, education, friendliness, honesty, intelligence, kindness, wealth and trustworthiness.
Geordies were deemed the least confident, least friendly, least kind, least rich and least trustworthy.
Meanwhile, the Cockney accent was the most working class, followed by Liverpudlian and Geordie, while Scousers were also thought of as being the most aggressive and criminal.
The scientists said they found that having a non-English accent “elicited more positive trait-and-behaviour ratings than English accents” while regional accents were “generally perceived more negatively than a standard one”.
For example, a Cardiff accent made people seem the friendliest and kindest, data revealed, while Glaswegian ranked highest for trustworthiness and honesty.
A Welsh, Scottish or RP accent scored best for every single one of the 10 characteristics.
The Geordie accent was bottom for five traits, with the Souse accent bottom for three and Cockney also bottom in three.
“These findings emphasise the fact that people carry with them their stereotyped judgements about accents when making attributions of guilt and this has serious implications for the criminal justice system,” the study’s authors wrote.
“Prejudice in the criminal justice system can come from many factors, but unlike some types, for example racial prejudice, voice or accent-based prejudice is not currently something that jurors may be aware of or warned against letting it sway their decisions.”
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