What Your Accent Says About You at Work

If you sound like you're from New York, chances are about half your co-workers think you're rude. If you have a Southern accent, they probably think you're nice, and if you have an English accent, then it's likely that you sound intelligent and sophisticated, according to the results of a recent Harris Poll.

When asked to think about their reaction to hearing various accents, roughly half of adults say they think speakers with a Southern accent seem nice, two in five say the same for speakers with a Midwest accent. About one in five, say those with either a British accent or New England accent are nice. Not surprisingly the study discovered that speakers with New York City accents were the least likely to be perceived as being nice, with less than 7 percent of respondents thinking so.

Roughly half of adults seen to think that those with a British accent are sophisticated -- far more than for any other accent (between 20 percent for New England accents, down to 6 percent for Southern accents). And, while a little more than half of adults think that speakers with New York City accents are rude, very few adults say the same for any other accent listed (between 14 and 4 percent).