Language expert chalks it up to long-held stereotypes.
A new survey suggests when it comes to trust in the cockpit, U.S. travelers prefer hearing a pilot with a New York or Chicago accent rather than one from Texas or elsewhere in the South.
The survey from U.K.-based Markco Media showed more than one-third of respondents said a pilot's accent made a difference in the confidence of their abilities.
Oklahoma State language expert Dr. Dennis Preston says this goes to the root of all stereotypes Americans have of one another.
"If you speak Southern English, you certainly didn't complete more than a few grades of elementary school, the major thing you know how to do with any technical skill is make moonshine, and you probably had no shoes until you were 21-years-old," Preston says jokingly.
He says people have this perception that we act the way we sound.
"People from the South drawl and talk slow because they are slow, and kind of lazy or dimwitted," Preston tells KTRH News. "People from the North speak very fast, because they are fast and they don't have time for you, they're rude and quick and that sort of thing."
"We know none of this is true," he adds.
As for the survey, Preston calls it entertaining.
