Vocalics
Image Courtesy of GIPHY
As a society we tend to make a lot of stereotypes in regards to the tone and pitch of a person’s voice. Feminine voices tend to be higher pitched and faster paced, where as masculine voices tend to be lower pitched and slower rates. At times when a person’s voice is not consistent with what is expected from their gender, we tend to make assumptions about their sexual orientation. In a study conducted by Munson, McDonald, DeBoe, and White (2006), they found that there are differences in the frequencies of certain vowels between the homosexual and heterosexual males. In the second part of the study, the research showed how participants in a controlled setting were able to make judgements on men's sexual orientation by differences in the different vowel frequencies.
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How does this relate to “Gaydar,” well it proposes that there is inherently some vocal characteristics that people can use to determine someone’s sexuality. They way our voice sounds creates stereotypes in concern with femininity, masculinity, and homosexuality in men, this can lead to different opinions and perspectives to be formed about a person. For example in a study by Ko, S.J., Judd, C.M., Stapel, D.A (2009), the men that displayed more masculinity in their voices were portrayed to be more dominant and competent, while men who displayed more femininity in their voices were perceived as being more warm and caring, but less dominant than other men. Now how do we use this information? Well even though research could pick up on the different frequencies in between voices, doesn't necessarily mean that the everyday person will be able to pick up on these. Also when it comes to the pitch of someone's voice, we have to remember that just because someone has a higher pitch voice, it doesn't mean that they identify as homosexual.
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