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The Effect of Perceived Regional Accents on Individual Economic Behavior: A Lab Experiment on Linguistic Performance, Cognitive Ratings and Economic Decisions

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  • Stephan Heblich
  • Alfred Lameli
  • Gerhard Riener
Abstract
Does it matter if you speak with a regional accent? Speaking immediately reveals something of one’s own social and cultural identity, be it consciously or unconsciously. Perceiving accents involves not only reconstructing such imprints but also augmenting them with particular attitudes and stereotypes. Even though we know much about attitudes and stereotypes that are transmitted by, e.g. skin color, names or physical attractiveness, we do not yet have satisfactory answers how accent perception affects human behavior. How do people act in economically relevant contexts when they are confronted with regional accents? This paper reports a laboratory experiment where we address this question. Participants in our experiment conduct cognitive tests where they can choose to either cooperate or compete with a randomly matched male opponent identified only via his rendering of a standardized text in either a regional accent or standard accent. We find a strong connection between the linguistic performance and the cognitive rating of the opponent. When matched with an opponent who speaks the accent of the participant’s home region—the in-group opponent –, individuals tend to cooperate significantly more often. By contrast, they are more likely to compete when matched with an accent speaker from outside their home region, the out-group opponent. Our findings demonstrate, firstly, that the perception of an out-group accent leads not only to social discrimination but also influences economic decisions. Secondly, they suggest that this economic behavior is not necessarily attributable to the perception of a regional accent per se, but rather to the social rating of linguistic distance and the in-group/out-group perception it evokes.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephan Heblich & Alfred Lameli & Gerhard Riener, 2015. "The Effect of Perceived Regional Accents on Individual Economic Behavior: A Lab Experiment on Linguistic Performance, Cognitive Ratings and Economic Decisions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0113475
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0113475
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    Cited by:

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    2. Céline Bonnet & Jan Philip Schain, 2020. "An Empirical Analysis Of Mergers: Efficiency Gains And Impact On Consumer Prices," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 1-35.
    3. Grogger, Jeffrey & Steinmayr, Andreas & Winter, Joachim, 2019. "The Wage Penalty of Regional Accents," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 184, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    4. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell, 2016. "Language and consumption," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 135-151.
    5. Dale-Olsen, Harald & Finseraas, Henning, 2020. "Linguistic diversity and workplace productivity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    6. Tom Lane, 2020. "Along which identity lines does 21st-century Britain divide? Evidence from Big Brother," Rationality and Society, , vol. 32(2), pages 197-222, May.
    7. Jens Suedekum, 2018. "Economic effects of differences in dialect," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 414-414, January.
    8. Deng, Jiapin, 2023. "Born to be different: The role of local political leaders in poverty reduction in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

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