Speaking Aussie slang makes you more likeable, apparently

Selfie, arvo, brekky -- use these words and people will like you more. It's a fact.

Well, according to a study by the Australian National University Research School of Psychology's Dr Evan Kidd, who claims to have established a link between the use of Aussie slang words and likeability. 

"Using slang seems to promote common ground between the speakers," Kidd said in a statement. "People use them if you want to indicate social closeness with each other."

There is a catch however -- you'll need to have an Australian accent to become more likeable. Start practising now and you'll be fair dinkum by next year. 

In the rather small study, 143 participants interacted with an actor that would and wouldn't use Australian slang, and then had to rate how much they liked the actor. Turns out if the actor used slang, they were more likeable. We are running with it. 

A repeat of the experiment was conducted with an Australian actor from an Asian background, who would switch between an Australian English accent and a foreign one. Likeability didn't improve with the foreign accent, we're sorry to say.

"If she used slang in her Australian English accent, they liked her more. However, if she used slang in a foreign accent it didn't change the amount they liked her," Kidd said in the statement.

Kidd told Mashable Australia via email that the study was conducted because slang is "very prominent in Australian English" and that likeability is perhaps a social reason as to why it occurs.

The study didn't test receptiveness between different types of slang endings, like "ie" in selfie or "ah" like Bazza, but is part of a wider project looking into how different generations of Australians use slang.

Want to win friends and influence people? Just stick to using Aussie words. 

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