Howard Giles (1973)

• Five groups were given identical arguments against capital punishment. One group read from the page, while the other four each heard a different accent.
• The greater the accent prestige, the greater the perceived quality of the argument. Listeners were most impressed by RP speakers.
• In terms of persuasiveness of the accents, those hearing regional speakers were more likely to have changed their minds about capital punishment than those hearing RP.
• Due to the social prestige attached to RP, positive and negative discrimination may occur towards its use and the person using it.
• Listeners seem to believe that those with regional accents are not hiding facts about their background.
• RP speakers don't appear to reveal anything about their background other than that they are educated and have social status.
• RP speakers earned respect but were not associated with personal integrity.
• Researchers have found that RP speakers tend to be rated more highly than speakers with a regional accent in terms of their general competence.
• RP speakers tends to receive high ratings for such qualities as: intelligence, self-confidence, ambition, determination and industriousness.
• RP speakers emerge less favourably than speakers with a regional accent in terms of personal qualities and general social attractiveness.
• RP speakers score less well for qualities such as friendliness, warmth, talkativeness, good-naturedness and sense of humour.