A new study finds that the English, even some Welsh and Scottish, associate a "working-class" accent with criminal behavior. In a jury trial, that could have serious ramifications, but it likely also matters before that. Arrests and voice identification, for example. You're more likely to be one of The Usual Suspects(1) if your accent is criminal.
What's worse, the English regard a Liverpool accent as the most criminal of all, even more than soccer fans in Wales or, well, everyone in Scotland. Sorry Paul McCartney.
Fern Brady cuts right to the heart of the matter of English society but when it comes to trust, Scots get lots.(2)
The experiment consisted of 180 participants, equal numbers of men and women, who listened to recordings of ten male voices with accents from, alphabetically, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Newcastle and the Received Pronunciation accent, Standard Southern British English. Afterward, they rates each voice for what they believed about intelligence, honesty, trust, etc. along with behaviors like 'cheat on their significant other' and 'return a lost wallet.'
The Southern Standard British Accent was least likely to score negatively while Bradford and Liverpool were at the top for English people hearing it and assuming the worst. Except when it came to sexual assault, touching, etc. In that instance, the Received Pronunciation accent was believed to be more likely to commit a sexual assault than any of the other offenses.
The good news for Scots out in kilts this weekend is that the English now see Scots as most likely to engage in ‘honourable behaviour’ (e.g. interfering if a woman is being harassed) and least likely to seem morally bad.
This checks out. At least for the Campbells, we don't need to try too hard. We're famous, as this clip from "Braveheart" shows:
NOTES:
(1) Thank you, "Casablanca", at 82 years old you still cook.
(2)
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