Scots are best in UK at 'detecting fake accents' to 'guard against outsiders'
People from Scotland are among the best at identifying someone imitating their accent, according to a recent study.
All across the country, there are a wide range of different accents that each have their own unique twang. From Edinburgh to Shetland, every part of Scotland features a unique dialect.
According to new research carried out by the University of Cambridge, Scottish and Irish people are the best at spotting a fake accent. Meanwhile, Londoners were found to be the worst.
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The study saw 12,000 participants from across Scotland, the northeast of England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Essex, London, and Bristol. They were played short audio clips of their native accent, with a Glasgow accent being used for Scotland, and were asked to identify whether they were real or fake.
When listening to the recordings, between 65 per cent and 85 per cent of participants from Scotland, the north-east of England, Ireland, and Northern Ireland were able to tell when their accents were being faked. On the other hand, only between 50 and 70 per cent of London and Essex successfully identified a fake accent.
According to the researchers, the results may be explained by how accents from Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, and the northeast of England have evolved over the years. They say that people from these regions have experienced "cases of between-group cultural tension", with a "greater social cohesion in Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow and the north-east" resulting "in a more prominent fear of cultural dilution by outsiders".
Corresponding author Dr Jonathan R Goodman from Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies commented: "We found a pretty pronounced difference in accent cheater detection between these areas. We think that the ability to detect fake accents is linked to an area’s cultural homogeneity, the degree to which its people hold similar cultural values."
He added: "Cultural, political, or even violent conflict are likely to encourage people to strengthen their accents as they try to maintain social cohesion through cultural homogeneity. Even relatively mild tension, for example the intrusion of tourists in the summer, could have this effect.
"I'm interested in the role played by trust in society and how trust forms. One of the first judgments a person will make about another person, and when deciding whether to trust them, is how they speak.
"How humans learn to trust another person who may be an interloper has been incredibly important over our evolutionary history and it remains critical today."
More information about the study can be found on the University of Cambridge website.
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