A Measure of Prejudice Against Accented English (MPAAE): Scale Development and Validation

Though numerous experiments support the presence of linguistic prejudice toward English speakers with foreign accents, there is, to date, no self-report measure of such prejudice. To capture the multidimensional nature of linguistic prejudice, we created the Measure of Prejudice Against Accented English via using the nominal response model under the item response theory. The resulting 36-item scale, using an empirically derived response format, is informative about individuals across all levels of accented-English prejudice. The scale has good psychometric properties. In addition, it displayed concurrent validity through positive correlations with self-reported xenophobia and feelings of threat from immigrants; it showed discriminant validity by not correlating with social desirability. To evaluate predictive validity, we conducted an experiment in which high linguistic prejudice scores were associated with lower ratings of job applicants who spoke with foreign accents.