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Americans perceive British English speakers as more intelligent, but those who have lived outside the US for at least three months rate Middle Eastern or Latin American people as more intelligent. Accents play a big role in how people are perceived, and mimicking foreign accents can improve comprehension. Regional accents also affect how people are viewed.
It’s not exactly clear why people with British accents sound more intelligent to Americans, but several studies show that Americans who haven’t lived outside the United States tend to rate British English speakers as having higher social status than those who do not speak English. Americans who have lived outside the United States for at least three months tend to rate British English speakers as less intelligent than Middle Eastern or Latin American people. What is clear is that people’s accents play a big part in how others perceive them. In fact, a study from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany found that study participants classified people almost exclusively by their accent.
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Mimicking a speaker’s foreign accent seems to help people understand each other better. A Dutch study found that participants who tried to mimic an unfamiliar accent had a much higher level of comprehension and comprehension in conversations than those who didn’t.
Foreign accents can sometimes make people seem less sincere. This is apparently because accents can make it harder for people to understand what other people are saying, which is often perceived as a falsehood.
Regional accents also have a significant effect on how people view others. For example, people who speak with a southern US accent might be seen as intellectually inferior to those from other regions. The region of the United States where the local accent is closest to standard American English is southern Iowa, parts of western Illinois, and parts of eastern Nebraska
