The languages that accent-uate your luck when finding love
When it comes to accent attraction some countries are worlds apart, according to new eharmony research about online daters’ perceptions of which inflections are most charming, smart or downright annoying.
While the survey results reinforce some celebrated stereotypes – for instance, a French accent is still the ‘language of love’ – there were some surprises amongst the top placings.
Allure of an accent
Accents have been declared an advantage or asset by those looking for a potential partner, with 42% of all survey respondents saying they boost attractiveness. A small proportion (8%) even sheepishly admitted to exaggerating their own accent in a bid to seem more attractive.
International accents were also positively associated with online love-seekers’ perceptions of likeability (29% agreed), friendliness (30%), being interesting (30%) and wanting to get to know someone (29%).
Which accents win the swoon stakes?
According to eharmony’s findings, French is the most attractive foreign accent (39%), followed by British English (30%) and Italian (29%).
French (56%) also takes gold for most romantic, with Italian (41%) and Spanish (16%) trailing behind, but British English is the clear winner across multiple measures, including most intelligent (44%), most honest (32%) and most sophisticated (42%).
56%
of participants think French accents are the most romantic
44%
of participants consider British English to be the most intelligent (and otherwise, most sophisticated and most honest).
Most friendly international accent was awarded to Irish (33%) which was also number one for most humorous (40%), followed by Scottish (30%).
33%
of participants considered the Irish accent to be the most friendly international accent
40%
also thought of the Irish accent as the most humorous
How does the Aussie accent rate?
While many (61%) survey participants felt accents varied from state-to-state – with nearly half (48%) saying Queenslanders have their own special vocalisation – the majority (69%) felt the Australian accent was perceived internationally as friendly and laid back (70%).
The Aussie twang scored lower on the measures of being considered sophisticated (14%) or exotic (21%); and 44% branded it ‘bogan’.
Most attractive and annoying celebrity accents
Who would we gladly listen to read the phone directory? Deep and distinctive vocals ranked highly in the survey results on most attractive male celebrity accents. Chris Hemsworth’s Aussie drawl was top pick (44%) followed by the late Sean Connery’s guttural Scottish (42%) and Morgan Freeman’s dulcet tone (39%) in third. Most attractive female celeb accents belonged to Margot Robbie (40%) and Emma Watson (38%).
Celebs whose accents were considered most grating were Kim Kardashian (42%), The Nanny star Fran Drescher (38%) and Arnold ‘I’ll be back’ Schwarzenegger (24%).
International relations
Twenty-eight percent of all survey participants said they’d open to online dating with someone overseas in their search for a life partner, with a higher rate of willingness amongst males (33%) than female respondents (24%).
28%
of participants would be open to online dating someone overseas when searching for a life partner
33%
of male participants would be open to doing this
24%
of female respondents would be open to long distance online dating
eharmony psychologist Sharon Draper said:
“When looking for a partner, people are heavily influenced – both consciously and subconsciously – by first impressions in making initial assessments about levels of attraction and potential compatibility. Accents are one of many first impression factors and, as the surveys shows, a significant proportion of the population openly admit to being enticed by foreign accents.
Countless studies have theorised on why people are attracted to certain accents – some contributing it to our social and cultural associations (basically stereotypes that certain nationalities conjure), while linguistic experts say some languages’ rhythmic intonation are easier on the ear.
A word of friendly, but cautionary, dating advice to anyone contemplating ‘putting on’ an accent to woo someone – this is a risky tactic which could backfire and is difficult to sustain long term and may bring about trust issues far too early in a relationship for it to truly flourish.”