The Northern Irish accent has been deemed the second sexiest lilt in the UK in a new survey.
It was conducted as part of the Sexiest Features Study which asked 2,000 respondents to identify which accents and regional dialects they considered attractive - and which would be a turn off when considering dating a prospective partner.
While Scotland took 36% of the vote, Northern Ireland was deemed the second most attractive accent, as 22% of those surveyed considered it the most attractive.
Read more: UK Government to introduce language legislation in Northern Ireland
Also among the sexy accents were West Yorkshire (16%), Welsh (15%) and Geordie (9%).
The survey went on to ask people which specific part of the region they considered to be the most compelling, with the findings showing that in Northern Ireland it’s Derry that people preferred, followed by Belfast, Armagh and Lisburn.
On the other end of the scale, it’s the Brummie accent - local to Birmingham, the Essex accent and the cockney accent that were voted the biggest turn-offs in the UK.
Some accents that did well in the ranking were West Country, which sat in the middle when it comes to sexiness, and Liverpuddlian, which sits just above Essex.
The survey also asked people what they consider to be dating ‘icks’ - defined as when “attraction to a current or potential partner is suddenly flipped to a feeling of disgust” - with struggling to understand an accent coming out as a turn-off for 1 in 10 people (11%).
Furthermore, 1 in 10 (9%) of people surveyed admitted that they would consider going on a date with someone purely based on their accent.
Other results showed that the biggest ‘ick’ was when people were rude to waiting staff (20%), arrived late to the date (17%) and only spoke about themselves (15%).
The survey showed that there’s still some debate about bill paying etiquette, with 12% of people likely to lose some interest were their partner to insist on splitting the bill.
The survey looked to dive deeper into the Sexiest Features Study, which analysed historical Sexiest Man and Sexiest Woman Alive lists to identify the physical features that we consider the most attractive - with tall, dark and handsome coming out on top for both sexes.
Based on data, the study found that the world’s most attractive man has short dark brown hair, brown eyes, a short beard or at least stubble, is exactly 6ft in height, and is in good shape, while the most attractive woman wears a moderate amount of makeup, has mid-length dark brown hair and brown eyes, and has a heart-shaped face.
Read more: Origins of Ulster Fry among gable art themes planned for North Belfast
Read more: Belfast Council to create Task Force to tackle "escalating" litter problem
To get the latest breaking news straight to your inbox, sign up to our free newsletter.
