In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers from the University of Chicago have found that an accent can impact a person's credibility.

Shiri Lev-Ari and Boaz Keysar from the university said that instead of perceiving the statements as more difficult to understand, they perceive them as less truthful.

A group of 30 people listened to phrases such as "a giraffe can go without water longer than a camel can" and "ants don't sleep" in Italian, Korean, Polish and other accents and graded them as to how likely they were true. The study found that people were influenced by the accent. So, when people had an accent they rated that to be less true than when people spoke without an accent.

The results of the study found that this may have an underlying impact on millions of people who do not communicate all the time in their native language and that it could reduce the credibility of job seekers, reporters and even eye witnesses.

Keysar said that "it is just a natural thing that we do and that we are just not aware of it."