The Voice of Personality: Stereotyped Judgments and their Relation to Voice Quality and Sex of Speaker

Abstract

This study attempted to determine the relationship between personality judgments from voice and vocal properties of the voice, particularly with reference to the speaker's sex. The taped voices of 57 American college students (25 males and 32 females) were played to 100 raters (also American college undergraduates) who rated the voices on 10 personality traits. Measurements were made of six vocal characteristics for each of the taped voices. There were correlations between personality judgments from the voices and the vocal characteristics of the voices. Raters also used different cues for rating male voices as opposed to female voices. The results were considered in terms of cultural sex role stereotypes.