Vocal aesthetics—Theoretical and methodological considerations

Abstract

Research on the influence of human voice on perceived attractiveness and other characteristics has a long tradition in psychology, aesthetics, and neuro-cognitive science. Here, we would like to present the perspectives, methodologies and goals of voice studies within these disciplines. Then, we will focus on the most common voice studies in psychology (i.e., evaluation of different characteristics based on the voice samples). Hundreds of studies have measured properties of the human voice to understand what vocal features tell about the speakers and how they influence their social perception. However, there is surprisingly little consensus about their methodology, specifically in terms of the verbal content and duration of voice recordings (i.e., speech stimulus types). While in some studies researchers record only vowel sounds or single words, others use sentences, longer, scripted statements or fragments of spontaneous conversations. The duration and verbal content of voice recordings could affect key nonverbal properties of speech, and therefore, in our project, we assessed the effect of speech stimulus type on voice perception in playback experiments. In our presentation, will describe the results of our previous studies and based on these we will also present our recommendations on future psychological experiments. [Work supported by NCN 2016/23/B/HS6/00771]