The survey asked 2,000 adults from around the country to listen to clips of regional accents to see how much they could stand.
Cockney was found to be the most annoying accent in Britain. Those taking part could only manage 58 seconds of Cockney slang before it got on their nerves. Danny Dyer will be fumin!
Second most annoying was Queen’s English, favoured by posh actors and Made in Chelsea stars. Respondents could listen to 1 min 32 secs before being totally ticked off.
Essex came in third, the accent famed for the antics on the Only Way is Essex and the GC, however researcher could only stand one minute and 51 seconds.
The data from The Knowledge Academy, hailed Geordie as the least annoying accent. Ant and Dec and Cheryl will rejoice as listeners stood over four minutes of Geordie chat.
Second-least annoying were those with no obvious regional identity and were found to be among the easiest on the ear.
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Experts have questioned why southern accents were deemed insufferable by those taking part in the research yet northern tones were more popular.
Language specialist Yelena McCafferty says it comes down to familiarity. She told RSVP Live: “Our reaction to accents says more about us than about the accents themselves.
“People are attracted to accents which sound familiar and it’s only natural that we tend to trust somebody who speaks like us. It makes us think that the person is from our own community, which is important for us on the subconscious level
“When we hear someone for the first time, we make assumptions because it’s our survival instinct: we need to see who is our friend and who is our foe based on comparisons to ourselves and someone we know.”
Here is the full ranking of the most and least annoying UK accents:
· Cockney: 58 secs
· Queen’s English: 1 min 32 secs
· Essex: 1 min 51 secs
· South Wales: 2 mins 17 secs
· Birmingham: 2 mins 34 secs
· Liverpool: 2 mins 41 secs
· Yorkshire: 3 mins 1 secs
· Glasgow: 3 mins 27 secs
· Plain English: 4 mins 11 secs
· Geordie: 4 mins 19 secs
