Abstract
Empirical research had initially shown that English listeners are able to identify the speakers' sexual orientation based on voice cues alone. However, the accuracy of this voice-based categorization, as well as its generalizability to other languages (language-dependency) and to non-native speakers (language-specificity), has been questioned recently. Consequently, we address these open issues in 5 experiments: First, we tested whether Italian and German listeners are able to correctly identify sexual orientation of same-language male speakers. Then, participants of both nationalities listened to voice samples and rated the sexual orientation of both Italian and German male speakers. We found that listeners were unable to identify the speakers' sexual orientation correctly. However, speakers were consistently categorized as either heterosexual or gay on the basis of how they sounded. Moreover, a similar pattern of results emerged when listeners judged the sexual orientation of speakers of their own and of the foreign language. Overall, this research suggests that voice-based categorization of sexual orientation reflects the listeners' expectations of how gay voices sound rather than being an accurate detector of the speakers' actual sexual identity. Results are discussed with regard to accuracy, acoustic features of voices, language dependency and language specificity.
Highlights
Sometimes when you want to believe so badly, you end up. . . looking too hard. (X-Files, Season 2 –Episode 5) Overhearing a voice often leads individuals to spontaneously categorize the speaker as a member of a specific social group
Rather than reflecting actual differences in speech style, such voice-based categorization seems to be driven by beliefs about what gay vs. heterosexual voices sound like
Inspection of the percentages of correct identifications revealed a different pattern for self-identified heterosexual and self-identified gay speakers: The former were correctly categorized in 63% of all cases which differed reliably from chance, chi-square = 18.71, p < .001, whereas the likelihood of correct identification of gay speakers was below chance (39% correct identifications, chi-square = 14.68, p
Summary
Sometimes when you want to believe so badly, you end up. . . looking too hard. (X-Files, Season 2 –Episode 5) Overhearing a voice often leads individuals to spontaneously categorize the speaker as a member of a specific social group. In the case of sexual orientation ( on SO), it has often been argued that people possess an ability to recognize a man’s SO on the basis of subtle indirect cues such as walking style or facial features [2]. Recent studies have suggested that this “detection skill” may function only on the basis of acoustic cues, meaning that people infer the SO of male speakers from voice alone [3, 4, 2]. Zimman [14] has recently remarked that rather than using actual cues, perceivers may draw inferences about SO from the degree to which an individual’s speech style deviates from typical heterosexual voices. Rather than reflecting actual differences in speech style, such voice-based categorization seems to be driven by beliefs about what gay vs heterosexual voices sound like
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