Cognitive Science & Psychology Division, ULAB

The paper aims to investigate how foreign accents impact perception and credibility by looking at various experiments that the researchers have conducted. To observe the effects that foreign accents have on listeners, we outlined three critical areas: visual and auditory stimuli, subtitle comprehension, and perception. By having an in-group or native accent as our control group, we were able to evaluate how various accents, such as Dutch and German, have a subtle impact on the accuracy of the speakers rated and measured by the participants. Based on our analysis, foreign-accented speakers are perceived to be less credible. In addition, it was concluded that perception also plays a key role in the day-to-day life of non-native speakers. While more research would be beneficial, it is clear that foreign accents reduce the speakers’ credibility and should be considered in environments such as job interviews and other social settings.