The Scottish accent is strongly associated with success, hard-work and reliability according to a new poll published today.
More than 46 per cent of those surveyed identified the Scottish accent with success with only the Home Counties and American accents ranking higher.
The Scottish accent also fared well when it came to hard-work and reliability with 53.8 per cent agreeing, second only to the Indian/Asian accent on 54 per cent.
The survey, carried out by executive communications consultancy The Aziz Corporation, also found the worst accent for a ‘top job to be a “working-class” Essex type, similar to that of celebrity Stacey Solomon. 70% of respondents admitted that they might have serious doubts about employing someone who sounded like Ms Solomon in a senior role.
David Beckham’s cockney twangs also failed to impress with 49% believing this accent could present a problem in business. The next least popular male accent in a senior role belonged to Prince Charles with nearly a third of business leaders admitting they would have second thoughts about employing an executive who sounded like him.
The “best” accents selected from a list were those belonging to Peter Jones (Dragon’s Den) and Clare Balding (Sports Presenter) – whose accents are both hard to place. This was very closely followed by the Scottish accents of Kirsty Young and former PM Gordon Brown.
More than 40% of respondents associated the Liverpudlian accent with a lack of success, following by the Birmingham accent (33%) and estuary English or cockney (32%).
Around 38% of respondents also identified the Liverpudlian accent with a lack of hard work and reliability – dramatically worse than any other accent.
300 executives completed the survey between 23rd and 30th January 2012. The findings are largely consistent with a similar survey conducted by The Aziz Corporation six years ago.
The organisation’s Chairman, Professor Khalid Aziz said: “The Scottish accent is well-liked with many positive associations. This is also consistent with a similar survey we carried out six years ago.”
