Accent, comprehensibility, and social evaluation in romantic contexts

This study examines how perceived accentedness, comprehensibility, and accent type relate to listeners’ evaluations of potential romantic partners. Perceived accentedness refers to the degree to which pronunciation differs from expected linguistic norms, comprehensibility to listeners’ perceived ease of understanding speech, and accent type to the accent category the speaker represents. Research on accent perception has largely focused on institutional contexts, leaving accent-related evaluations in romantic contexts less understood. A total of 160 listeners evaluated speech samples representing four accent backgrounds: Mexican-, Chinese-, Russian-, and Southern U.S.-accented English, for accentedness, comprehensibility, and dating willingness. Linear mixed-effects analyses showed that greater perceived comprehensibility was associated with higher dating willingness, whereas perceived accentedness was not significantly associated with the primary four-item dating-willingness composite. The omnibus effect of accent type did not reach statistical significance for the composite. However, exploratory analyses showed that accentedness and accent type were associated with some individual components of dating willingness, particularly second-date and long-term relationship interest. These findings extend research on accent-based social evaluation to romantic contexts. They also highlight the context-dependent nature of the social meanings associated with accent variation and the relevance of perceived ease of understanding in romantic evaluations.