Accentuate the self: prioritization of self-associated external voices in enhanced by accent matching

It has long been known that self-relevant information, such as one’s own name or face, attracts attention and is prioritized in cognition. Recent evidence suggests that even external voices can elicit the Self-Prioritization Effect (SPE), with voices associated with the self-identity label ‘you’ eliciting faster responses than those assigned to ‘friend’ or ‘stranger’ (Payne et al., 2021). This effect can be further enhanced when participants are given agency to choose their self-associated voice, strengthening the connection to self through a sense of ownership. In the current study, we investigate whether greater links to self, in the form of accent matching between external voices and participants’ own accents, enhance this self-bias. In Exp 1 (N = 140), we found that accent-matched self-associated voices elicited a stronger SPE than mismatched voices. In Exp 2 (N = 70), combining accent matching with agency—allowing participants to choose their self-associated voice—further amplified the SPE, demonstrating that these effects are additive. These findings highlight the role of accent as a social marker in self-prioritization and have implications for the development of personalized voice-based technologies.