| Literature DB >> 24870387 |
Rindy C Anderson1, Casey A Klofstad2, William J Mayew3, Mohan Venkatachalam3.
Abstract
Vocal fry is speech that is low pitched and creaky sounding, and is increasingly common among young American females. Some argue that vocal fry enhances speaker labor market perceptions while others argue that vocal fry is perceived negatively and can damage job prospects. In a large national sample of American adults we find that vocal fry is interpreted negatively. Relative to a normal speaking voice, young adult female voices exhibiting vocal fry are perceived as less competent, less educated, less trustworthy, less attractive, and less hirable. The negative perceptions of vocal fry are stronger for female voices relative to male voices. These results suggest that young American females should avoid using vocal fry speech in order to maximize labor market opportunities.Entities:
Mesh:
Year: 2014 PMID: 24870387 PMCID: PMC4037169 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097506
Source DB: PubMed Journal: PLoS One ISSN: 1932-6203 Impact factor: 3.240
Figure 1Screenshot of vocal fry perception online assay.
Descriptive statistics of acoustic features of vocal stimuli.
| Male Voices (N = 7 pairs) | Female Voices (N = 7 pairs) | |||||
| Normal | Fry | Difference | Normal | Fry | Difference | |
| Mean F0 (Hz) | 123.86 | 108.29 | −15.57 | 204.29 | 187.57 | −16.72 |
| Min F0 (Hz) | 81.14 | 77.29 | −3.85 | 105.71 | 103.14 | −2.57 |
| Max F0 (Hz) | 224.71 | 191.14 | −33.57 | 323.57 | 369.29 | 45.72 |
| F0 Range (Hz) | 143.71 | 113.71 | −30.00 | 218.00 | 266.00 | 48.00 |
Note: The acoustic analysis was conducted in Praat (Boersma & Weenink 2013). Cell entries are averages across the voices.
p≤.06.
*p≤.05,
**p≤.01,
***p≤.001 (Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Test).
Figure 2Waveform and spectrogram of the same woman saying the word “opportunity” in normal voice (Panel A) and vocal fry (Panel B).
The dashed circles indicate the vibrations in the vocal fry voice at the end of the utterance.
Figure 3Average preference ratios for vocal fry over normal voice (+/− 95% confidence interval) by sex of speaker.
Preference ratios reflect the proportion choices made in favor of vocal fry relative to a normal speaking voice. A preference ratio of 1 (0) reflects a strict preference for vocal fry (normal voice), while 0.50 indicates no discernible preference for either vocal fry or normal voice voices.
Relationship between listeners' perceptions of vocal fry and willingness to hire.
| (1) All Observations | (2) Male Listeners/Male Speakers | (3) Female Listeners/Male Speakers | (4) Male Listeners/Female Speakers | (5) Female Listeners/Female Speakers | |
| Trustworthy | .44 | .41 | .43 | .41 | .58 |
| Competent | .24 | .21 | .23 | .39 | .22 |
| Educated | .21 | .28 | .13 | .12 | .18 |
| Attractive | .06 | .05 (.05) | .15 | .04 | .002 (.02) |
| Constant | −.01 (.003) | −.01 (.01) | −.002 (.01) | −.003 (.01) | −.003 (.004) |
| F | 1293.33 | 227.46 | 240.23 | 452.21 | 771.35 |
| Adjusted R2 | .87 | .82 | .83 | .90 | .94 |
| N | 800 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 |
Note: The dependent variable is the preference ratio for willingess to hire. The independent variables represent the preference ratios for perceptions of trustworthiness, competence, education, and attractiveness. Cells contain unstandardized linear regression coefficients, standard errors in parentheses.
p≤.07,
*p≤.05,
**p≤.01,
***p≤.001.