Verification of impression of voice in relation to occupational categories.

Abstract

The present study examined how personality traits, physical characteristics, and occupational categories derived from listening to human voices are related to each other. Stimuli were 25 tape-recorded male vocal samples. In Study 1, 114 undergraduate and graduate students rated each of the 25 voices on 22 personality traits and 11 vocal characteristics. Participants were also given a list of 34 occupational categories from which they selected one suitable occupational category for each of the 25 voices. Of 34 occupations, 20 occupations selected most frequently were used in Study 2 wherein 90 junior college students rated the voices on the 20 occupational categories. Factor analyses produced three factors for personality characteristics, for vocal characteristics, and for occupational categories. Also, significant correlations among those factors (both positive and negative) indicated participants consistently attributed particular personality and vocal characteristics to specific voices and assigned those voices to particular occupational categories. Stereotypical perception of voices is discussed in terms of earwitness identification.