When it matters how you pronounce it: The influence of regional accents on job interview outcome

Abstract

The visual dimension has featured prominently in person perception in the last 25 years. Alone, this dimension cannot give the complete 'picture' of others because language and speech (i.e., the auditory dimension) are also highly informative. Social-cognition research investigates the role of auditory information for impression formation. In a series of experiments, we tested perceived competence, hirability, and socio-intellectual status of different targets based on their regional accents. Given identical content of statements in different conditions of an alleged job interview, regional German accents (Saxon, Bavarian, and Berlin) resulted in lower perceived competence and hirability than standard German, even though the Bavarian accent at the same time resulted in higher ratings of socio-intellectual status compared to other regional accents (Experiment 1). These findings were confirmed when using a broader population sample and a 'matched guise' technique (Experiment 2). Our findings indicate that regional accents, similar to faces, can be very powerful in creating differentiated pictures of individuals.

Fitting the mould: the role of employer perceptions in immigrant recruitment decision-making

“…The authors argue that this might be a result of rater-applicant similarity, in which similarity regarding demographic variables tends to inflate raters' judgements about job competence and suitability. More recently, research conducted by Rakic et al (2011) in Germany supports the notion that speakers with regional accents are perceived as lacking in competence or motivation or effort to speak the standard German language.…”

To Fake or Not to Fake: Antecedents to Interview Faking, Warning Instructions, and Its Impact on Applicant Reactions

“…Levashina and Campion (2007) found that over 90% of applicants tend to report using at least some interview faking, although there is variability across individuals. Importantly, studies utilizing signal detection theory indicate that interviewers are not effective at detecting interview faking (Roulin et al, 2014). Furthermore, although increasing the structure of an interview is often viewed as an avenue to increase its validity (Campion et al, 1997), IM has still been found to impact interviewer evaluations in structured interviews (Ellis et al, 2002; Tsai et al, 2005) 1 , as certain elements of the structured interview may create additional opportunities to use faking behaviors (Levashina and Campion, 2006).…”

“…Interview faking has been found to inflate interviewer evaluations of the candidate (Levashina and Campion, 2007; Swider et al, 2011; Roulin et al, 2014). As not everyone engages in interview faking to the same extent (Levashina and Campion, 2007), this is problematic insofar as some individuals may receive higher interview ratings than warranted, thus jeopardizing the validity of the interview (Posthuma et al, 2002).…”

‘If you look the part you’ll get the job’: should career professionals help clients to enhance their career image?

“…In some cases interpersonal skills demonstrate the performance of cultural capital. Rakic, Steffens and Mummendey (2011), for example, argue that those with 'standard' accents have an advantage in the job market over those with regional accents, through associations with prestige and social class. This inter-face between social class and conceptions of effective self-presentation will be returned to later in this paper.…”