Any wonder on TV southerners are portrayed as hicks and the butt of jokes in America, to be laughed at. Professors at the University of Chicago have made a startling new discovery regarding accent-based biases and how these preconceptions form at a very early age. Interestingly enough, these differences became even more exaggerated as the children grew older. The researchers conducted the same study with 10-year-old children, and in both groups, the children overwhelmingly said that people with Northern accents were ‘smarter’ and ‘in charge,’ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...y-AGE-FIVEck-intelligence-early-AGE-FIVE.html
Did they survey southern children, or northern children? And how much of this can be blamed on parents not working hard enough to dispel these indoctrinated ideas?
Southern children and Northern children were used in the study and it was the Northern children who discerned a southern accent as less smart and less in charge. The southern children did not see a difference. Not that fascinating of a study. I will say that I worked via phone with a marketing agency in New Jersey and immediately had the impression they were rude. When they weren't. Their accent and way they spoke seemed rude to me. Wonder if there was a study on that...
Heavens no! That would imply that there's something wrong with those super-intelligent northern sophisticates. Trying to extrapolate this to my own country. As a member of the 'elite' in terms of accent, I've noticed that sometimes when dealing with folk who have a 'rougher' and stronger accent - with more limited vocabularies, my manner of speaking sounds posher than usual .. to my own ears. It's just the contrast, and sometimes that contrast can make people uncomfortable.
