I haven’t heard my voice in a while and decided to record it and play it back. I don’t know if it is just me or if this happens to other people, but when I hear my voice in the recording, it always shocks me. Mostly because in my head, I certainly don’t sound like the recording. This got me to thinking on how people perceived me because of my voice. When looking on the internet, apparently, people judge the tone of your voice and determine a great deal about you from it.
ScienceNOW conducted a study in U.K. which recruited around 60 undergraduate students and recorded them reading a short passage. Next, the researchers asked over 300 other students to listen to just the word Hello from the recordings and then were asked to give an impression of voice from just the word Hello. ScienceNOW reported the following, “Men who raised the tone of their voices, and women who alternated the pitch of their voices were rated as more trustworthy. Men with lower pitched voices were generally perceived as more dominant. But the opposite was true for women: Those with higher average pitch were rated as more dominant.“
Another study published in the Journal of Psychological Science had MBA students videotaped on why they should be hired. Then prospective employers and professional recruiters reviewed the various pitches. The result of study demonstrated that when it comes to first impressions on intelligence, your voice is more important than your looks.
It has been a trend for women to hire vocal coaches to help lower their voice. British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, even had elocution lessons to make her voice sound lower in order to sound more dominant, but then the public then felt she was less genuine. Another study was completed by the research team from Duke University and the University of California which showed that CEOs with the deeper voices managed larger companies and also made more money.
I find it fascinating that so much is conveyed to people just by your voice tone. I don’t think I will try to change my voice anytime soon. However, I am now inspired to go watch the movie My Fair Lady. Speaking of watching things, I also watched an interesting YouTube video by the GEM Goddess in regards to the speaking tone of your voice and how it is your dominant chakra. She utilizes the app ‘Cleartune’ in order to discover the tone of her voice. If you click on GEM Goddess it will take you to that YouTube video.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
fun
Thank you! 🙂