Female listeners’ personality attributions to male speakers: The role of acoustic parameters of speech

Abstract

Speech is a complex sign and has several layers that convey information. The extra linguistic layer of speech comprises acoustic cues that give the listener a hint about the speaker’s certain properties. In this context, the present paper examines female listeners’ personality judgments about male speakers. Vocal parameters of 20 male speakers were measured and the spontaneous speech recordings were played to 42 females, who rated their impressions about speakers’ personalities on scales constructed according to the Big Five personality factors. Some of the temporal parameters demonstrated correlation with the inferred personality traits, e.g. faster speech correlated with inferred openness and extraversion. However, in contrast with previous findings, fundamental frequency parameters did not correlate with any of the inferred personality dimensions. It is suggested that in the perception of spontaneous speech, parameters other than those related to fundamental frequency may overwrite impressions that have been reported to evoke by fundamental frequency when isolated speech sounds or read texts were used.