This study examined biases in the depiction of foreign and non-standard accents in children's media, and how they align with children's own biases (data collected 2021-2022 in the Greater Toronto Area). An analysis of two generations of North American children's media (105 older and newer films/TV series) found that foreign and non-standard accents are disproportionately used to depict villains, with no evidence of this bias decreasing over time (Experiment 1). When tasked with casting voice actors for cartoon characters, 8-year-olds (N = 91, 49 girls, 42 boys, ethnically diverse) and adults (N = 80, 70 women, 10 men, MAge = 41) found foreign-accented actors more suitable for villains than local accents (Experiment 2); additionally, participants exposed to more accent bias in their favorite media were more likely to assign foreign accents to villains. Finally, the tendency to choose foreign accents for villains more than local accents increased with age from 5- to 13-years-old (Experiment 3; an additional 161 participants, 86 girls and young women and 75 boys and young men, ethnically diverse). These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that media promotes negative sociolinguistic stereotypes.
Pierre et al. (2026) studied this question.