Sexiest accents our own: study

There’s just something sexy “aboat” the Canadian accent — provided you’re a fellow Canadian.

A University of British Columbia study, published Wednesday, finds people overwhelmingly prefer dialects similar to their own, most likely “because they convey a soothing sense of community.” Unlike previous investigations into vocal attractiveness, which focused on mate selection and the presumed appearance of an unseen speaker, the new research suggests there’s a social belongingness component to voice preference.

“There are so many things we can do with our voice that extend beyond general physical characteristics,” said lead author Molly Babel, a professor of linguistics. “We felt that our preferences had to be about more than a person’s shape and size.”

The study was conducted, alongside scholars at the University of California-Santa Cruz, with a group of Californians who were born and raised in the U.S. state. These participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of 60 voices — 30 male, 30 female — on a scale of one to nine.

Overwhelmingly, Babel said, people found the greatest appeal in regional dialects similar to their own . In Canada ,where immigrants make up one in five members of the population, Babel said the results imply that newcomers face a social cost to sounding like outsiders.

The good news is that the anecdotal appeal of certain foreign accents suggests that the exotic can also be compelling — particularly if the dialect is linked with positive stereotypes.

“There might be a benefit to having your accent associated with high prestige,” said Babel. “For example, people in North America tend to think someone with a British accent sounds really smart.”