Foreign Advantage, Regional Stigma? A Multivariate Analysis of Selected Dutch Regional and Foreign-Accented Speakers in Hiring Evaluations

Although many studies have shown accent bias in hiring contexts, the mechanisms underlying different types of accent bias remain underexplored. This study investigated how accent type (operationalized through selected foreign and regional accents) and accent strength (slight vs. strong) jointly influence social evaluations of speakers. In a verbal guise experiment, Dutch participants ( N  = 458) rated job applicants speaking Dutch with slight or strong foreign (French or German) or regional (Limburgish or Twents) accents, or Standard Dutch (control), on processing fluency, inferred motive, social categorization, attitudinal evaluations (competence, status, likeability, dynamism) and hirability. Results revealed less favourable evaluations of the selected strongly regionally accented speakers than the selected strongly foreign-accented speakers across inferred motive, social categorization, dynamism, status and hirability. The selected foreign-accented speakers received similar ratings to standard-accented speakers. These findings underscore the importance of examining accent type and strength and adopting a multivariate approach to capture their complex interplay.