Revealed: What your voice says about you, according to science

From deep to squeaky and from loud to quiet, the variation in our voices is a surprising aspect of human existence.

But according to decades of psychological research, the exact way we speak can provide important insights into our personality.

A deep voice, like Morgan Freeman’s, is a sign of extroversion and even sexual attractiveness, while a loud voice can be a reflection of power.

Meanwhile, a murmur can be more sexist and even an indication of intelligence rather than stupidity, according to psychologists.

Here’s a closer look at what the sound of your voice reveals about you, according to science.

PASSED

The pitch of a voice refers to its pitch or gravity perceived by the ear, which depends on the number of vibrations per second produced by the vocal folds.

High-pitched voices, like those of actress Cameron Diaz, singer Christina Aguilera, or comedian Steve Carell, are louder or lighter.

Deep voices, such as those of actor Morgan Freeman or singer Tina Tuner, are usually described as rich or deep and an attractive trait in the opposite sex.

A recent study found that people who speak in a lower tone are more attractive for long-term relationships.

According to the authors of the Penn State University study, this is because it “exaggerates size” and makes someone “look big and intimidating.”

According to another 2021 study, people who speak in a lower tone are more likely to be willing to have casual sex.

In experiments, people with lower voices had fewer restrictions when it came to their “sociosexual” behavior, including orientation, attitudes, and desires.

In the study, people with deep voices were also found to be more extroverted and have greater “dominance,” meaning they have high levels of influence in social situations.

Men with deep voices are more likely to attract a partner, but are also more likely to cheat on them due to high levels of testosterone, according to a 2020 study.

According to Chinese authors, women are often attracted to men with low, rich voices because they are associated with high levels of testosterone.

Having a low tone can also be useful if you want to favorably influence certain people for your own benefit.

TO 2012 study found that people prefer to vote for politicians with a lower tone of voice, probably because they sounded more dominant, honest, intelligent and attractive.

and a 2013 study CEOs with lower pitches of voice were found to oversee larger companies, receive higher compensation, and enjoy longer tenures than CEOs with higher pitches of voice.

Interestingly, a 2017 study found that people have a high-pitched tone of voice when speaking to people they feel inferior to, such as their boss.

TEMPO

Fast talkers, like Hollywood film director Quentin Tarantino and former Irish soccer player Shay Given, often give the impression that they have a lot on their mind that they want to share.

It is often assumed that the speed or pace at which we speak reveals how intelligent we are, as if people with more powerful brains can process words faster.

But the speed at which we speak has nothing to do with intelligence, according to Michelle Devereaux, a professor of English education at Kennesaw State University.

“Slow talkers are often assumed to be less intelligent or competent than fast talkers, while very fast talkers may be seen as less truthful or good-hearted,” he said.

“There is no inherent connection between the rate of speech and levels of intelligence, truthfulness or kindness.”

However, researchers have linked voice tempo to other traits.

TO 1984 newspaper He reported that the speech rate of extroverts is faster than that of introverts.

More recently, psychologists at Stanford University suggested that speaking slowly can communicate power and confidence, and is a way to “claim social space.”

JOINT

Whether or not we sputter like a teenager, skip syllables left, right and center, or pronounce our words perfectly is also related to our personality traits.

A 2021 study found that women find men who gossip, like actor Tom Hardy, more attractive because it is linked to being sexist.

Men, on the other hand, find clear pronunciation, like Elizabeth Hurley’s refined tones, attractive in the opposite sex because it indicates femininity.

Women tend to produce speech that is “acoustically and phonetically more distinct” than that of men, the study authors said.

Keith Johnson, a phonetician at Ohio State University, found that skipping syllables is a common tool in conversational speech, but it causes confusion.

He cited the Irish playwright St. John Greer Ervine, who argued that “lazy” Englishmen frequently mumbled or skipped syllables.

Many are “weak too languid and castrated to speak their noble language with any vigor,” Ervine said in 1948.

However, in a 2015 essay in Nautilus MagazineLinguistics author Julie Sedivy argued that pronouncing vowels interchangeably and dropping consonants are not “symptoms of sloppy speech,” but can be a smart tactic.

He made comparisons between the human ability to eliminate or reduce sounds during speech and a computer’s ability to compress data.

VOLUME

Volume can also reveal a lot about personality, whether you have a powerful boom like actor Brian Blessed or a quiet hum like Elon Musk.

A 2014 study linked having a louder voice with having power in a social situation, such as being able to make decisions on behalf of a group.

This suggests that consciously raising the volume of your voice can give you more control and make people listen to you.

According to a 1934 article by American psychologists Hadley Cantril and Gordon Allport, more extroverted people have “louder, more boisterous and carefree voices.”

Meanwhile, those with quiet voices are commonly perceived as more introverted, on the basis that lower volume does not also draw the attention of others.

However, the link is not clear, as introverts can be loud and extroverts can be quiet.