ABSTRACT
In many societies, special privilege is accorded to standard accents, owing to perceptions that they possess superior clarity, are closer to the language’s written form, or denote greater intelligence than non-standard varieties. The Accent Bias in Britain (ABB) project sought to investigate the extent to which unconscious accent bias might influence the judgements of recruiters in the legal sector. The results reveal persistent bias against certain non-standard varieties of British English in professional contexts. We discuss the ramifications of these findings for our current understanding of prescriptivism and its effect on social mobility.
