A new study shows if you’re speaking good ‘Aussie’, you’re more trustworthy, in this country at least.
Using the word ‘mate’ isn’t getting you anywhere, however.
Researchers from The University of Western Australia (UWA) have published the Human Ethology study. It concludes that people were more likely to trust someone who speaks with the same accent.
“Accent is a pertinent social marker and can shape group preferences; non-native speakers are often perceived less positively than native speakers in domains such as integrity and solidarity,” said study author Dr Cyril Grueter from UWA’s School of Human Sciences.
Dr Grueter said researchers conducted a psychological experiment where they recorded six speeches by three male speakers (portrayed as bungee jump instructors) that differed in two ways.
The first was accent – with Australian English, British English and English with a foreign (Swedish) accent used and the second was the inclusion of the word ‘mate’. Listeners then rated each speech in terms of trustworthiness.
“Our results show that Australian listeners regard speakers with their own accent as having higher trustworthiness,” Dr Grueter revealed.
“Nevertheless, our finding that accented speakers receive lower trustworthiness ratings from locals emphasise the need to take accent-based discrimination and prejudice seriously,” he said.
He added that the results were based on a single experiment and needed further investigation.
