Accent Discrimination in Entrepreneurial Fundraising
研究发现，创业者的口音若符合刻板印象中的创业者形象，更容易获得融资，揭示了创业融资中基于口音的歧视现象。
Accent is a powerful, yet still socially acceptable, basis of discrimination that shapes interpersonal evaluations and access to opportunities, potentially disadvantaging entrepreneurs seeking funding. Bridging role congruity theory with sociolinguistic literature, we hypothesize that entrepreneurs whose regional accents align with the stereotypical entrepreneur are more likely to secure funding. We test this hypothesis in entrepreneurial pitching contexts using an observational study and two pre-registered experiments that manipulate entrepreneurs’ accents in pitch videos through a professional voice actor and AI. Across the UK, Italy, and the United States, the results support our hypothesis, providing robust evidence of accent-based discrimination in entrepreneurial fundraising.