Junior winners at the Young Scientist Exhibition explain how accents influence employment prospects.
The year after being named Young Scientist of the Year, Aisling Judge visits the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition to find her favourite project.
She picks 'A Statistical Study of the Influence of Accents on Employment Prospects' by Brian Crowley and Sean O'Rahilly who attend her own school, Kinsale Community School in Cork.
The boys recorded a range of accents, Cork, Kerry, Donegal, Northern Ireland, Eastern European and they surveyed 173 people’s responses to these accents.
Their research demonstrates,
People with a cultured accent, which is an upper class accent, had more chance of getting the high profile jobs than somebody say with an inner city accent.
The project arose from a visit Brian Crowley made to Dublin,
I was amazed when the Irish shop assistant found it difficult to understand my accent.
The boys describe their own accents as,
Cultured Cork.
This is fortuitous as their research finds cultured Cork is the best accent to have in terms of employment prospects.
There’s a bias but it’s a reality.
Brian Crowley and Sean O'Rahilly won first prize in the Social and Behavioural Sciences category in the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition junior group.
This episode of ‘S@ttitude’ was broadcast on 13 January 2007. The presenters are Brian Ormond and Molly Bhreathnach.
