Accent bias towards nonnative accented counseling trainees

The current study examined how accent affects people’s perception of counselors-in-training in the United States. Broadly, research has consistently shown that people with nonnative accents are viewed less favorably and evaluated less positively compared to those with native accents (e.g., Dragojevic et al., 2021; Giles & Rakić, 2014; Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010a). More importantly, accented speakers are often evaluated more harshly in formal settings (Fuertes et al., 2012). For instance, research has demonstrated the people who speak with an accent are viewed as less hireable based on job interviews (e.g., Hansen & Dovidio, 2016) and less competent in a work setting (e.g., Nelson et al., 2016). In the Counseling Psychology field, few studies have examined people’s perception of therapists with different accents. Thus, this quantitative investigation of the effects of accent bias from a perceiver’s perspective fills an important gap. The results of the present study showed that native English speakers in the United States perceive native and nonnative English-speaking counselors-in-training as equally qualified, but they viewed nonnative accented trainees as less competent, skillful, warm, and likeable, and more inferior (or less superior) than their native accented peers. Additionally, participants expressed less willingness to work with these foreign accented trainee therapists. The perceived comprehensibility of their speech and the speaker’s expected communication difficulty independently explained the ratings of trainees' qualifications and competence based on their accents, and the participants’ willingness to work with them. Specifically, higher ratings of perceived comprehensibility predicted higher ratings of the outcome variables, and higher ratings of expected communication difficulty predicted lower ratings of the outcome variables. Furthermore, levels of Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and Patriotism significantly impacted the aforementioned ratings of qualification, competence, and willingness: people with higher SDO or Patriotism rated nonnative accented trainees lower on these variables than their native accented peers.