Accent Bias and Inclusion: Mapping the Behavioural Determinants of Injustice
Erez Levon (University of Bern)
Accent is one of the most salient signals of social background in Britain. Recent research has begun to map how ideological links between accents and social group membership feed patterns of bias in the UK, leading to various forms of discrimination and social inequity (Baratta 2018; Levon et al. 2021; Cushing & Snell 2023; Drummond & Ryan 2024). In this talk, I connect research in this paradigm to broader discussions of social (in)justice and inclusion. Specifically, I summarise some of the principal findings of the Accent Bias in Britain project (Levon et al. 2017-2021), findings which illustrate continuing bias in Britain – particularly against working- class and/or racialised accents – but that also show incremental attenuation of bias by context. I argue that we can account for these contextual effects by treating accent bias as one component of a multidimensional understanding of behaviour, one in which attitudes interact with social norms and perceived control to determine behavioural outcomes (Ajzen 2005). I describe how treating language attitudes in this way allows us to target different forms of accent-linked injustice, enabling us to move beyond issues of misrecognition to also include inequities of distribution and representation (Fraser 2012). I discuss the implications of my arguments for models of language attitudes and discrimination and for addressing linguistic impediments to inclusion and equity.