The vocal attractiveness stereotype: Replication and elaboration

We examined personality impressions on five NEO subscales (Costa & McCrae, 1985) as a function of senders' vocal and physical attractiveness. There were four major findings: (a) both vocal and physical attractiveness produced more favorable ratings, and these effects were more pronounced in a single channel (voice only or face only, respectively) than in a multiple channel (voice plus face); (b) the influence of attractiveness, both vocal and physical, was moderated by subscale—the effect of vocal attractiveness was most pronounced for Neuroticism and nonexistent for Agreeableness; the effect of physical attractiveness was most pronounced for Extraversion and nonexistent for Conscientiousness; (c) a vocal attractiveness × physical attractiveness interaction indicated that effects of the two stereotypes were particularly strong for senders who were attractive on both channels; (d) the effects of attractiveness, both vocal and physical, diminished when judges were familiar with the target persons.This research was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant RO1 MH 40498.     

What sounds beautiful is good: The vocal attractiveness stereotype

Two studies examined the effects of attractiveness of voice and physical appearance on impressions of personality. Subject-senders were videotaped as they read a standard-content text (Study 1) or randomly selected texts (Study 2). Judges rated the senders' vocal attractiveness from the auditory portion of the tape and their physical attractiveness from the visual portion of the tape. Other judges rated the senders' personality on the basis of their voice, face, or face plus voice. Senders with more attractive voices were rated more favorably in both the voice and face plus voice conditions; senders with more attractive faces were rated more favorably in both the face and face plus voice conditions. The effects of both vocal and physical attractiveness were more pronounced in the single channels (voice condition and face condition, respectively) than in the multiple channel (face plus voice condition). Possible antecedents and consequences of the vocal attractiveness stereotype are discussed. p]Her voice was ever soft, gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.Shakespeare (King Lear, Act V, Sc. 3)This research was supported in part by National Institute Mental Health Grant RO1 MH40498-01A2. The authors would like to thank Thomas J. Hernandez, James R. Laguzza, Andrea Lurier, and Mary Elizabeth Sementilli for running the videotaping sessions in Study 1, and Craig B. Partyka, Kimberly A. Radoane, and Kelly B. Sanborn for running the videotaping sessions in Study 2. Grateful acknowledgment is extended to Kate Johnson and Michael Zygmuntowicz for running rating sessions in Study 2, to BiancaMaria Penati for running rating sessions and coding data in Study 2, and to Bradley C. Olson for his assistance with data analysis.     

Nonverbal behavior and gender as determinants of physical attractiveness

We investigated the combined and interacting effects of positivity, dominance, sex, and three nonverbal channels on the perception of physical attractiveness. We found that positive affects were rated as more attractive than negative affects regardless of the channel (face and voice, as well as body). We also found that physical attractiveness in females appeared to be a function of the face and body combined, whereas for males it appeared more to be a function of the face alone.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by the National Science Foundation and by the Spencer Foundation. The content of this report is solely the responsibility of the authors. The paper is based on the first author's senior honors thesis, written under the supervision of the third author, and submitted to the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. The authors wish to thank Louis Elson, Cecil Quillen, David McCreery, Bill Duryea, Suzanne Kemple, Steve Love, Frank Bernieri, Monica Harris, Poppy McLeod, David Buss, Paul Andreassen and Roger Brown for their contributions to the research and to the preparation of this paper.     

The attractive voice: What makes it so?

Previous research has shown that more attractive voices are associated with more favorable personality impressions. The present study examined which acoustic characteristics make a voice attractive. Segments of recorded voices were rated on various dimensions of voice quality, attractiveness, and personality impressions. Objective measures of voice quality were obtained from spectrogram analysis. Overall, the subjective ratings of voice quality predicted vocal attractiveness better than the objective measures. When vocal attractiveness was regressed onto both subjective and objective measures, the final regression equation included 8 subjective measures, which together accounted for 74% of the variance of the attractiveness scores. It also was found that the measures of voice quality accounted for variance in favorableness of personality impressions above and beyond the contribution of vocal attractiveness. Thus, attractiveness captures an important dimension of the voice but does not cover all aspects of voice quality.This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH40498.     

Vocal and Physiological Changes in Response to the Physical Attractiveness of Conversational Partners

We examined how individuals may change their voices when speaking to attractive versus unattractive individuals, and if it were possible for others to perceive these vocal changes. In addition, we examined if any concurrent physiological effects occurred when speaking with individuals who varied in physical attractiveness. We found that both sexes used a lower-pitched voice and showed a higher level of physiological arousal when speaking to the more attractive, opposite-sex target. Furthermore, independent raters evaluated the voice samples directed toward the attractive target (versus the unattractive target) as sounding more pleasant when the two voice samples from the same person presented had a reasonably perceptually noticeable difference in pitch. These findings may have implications for the role voice plays in mate selection and attraction.     

The Effects of Average Fundamental Frequency and Variance of Fundamental Frequency on Male Vocal Attractiveness to Women

This paper employs a cue synthesis experimental method to examine the effects of pitch and intonation on male vocal attractiveness to women. Voices were acoustically manipulated to yield nine combinations of three levels of average fundamental frequency and three levels of variance of fundamental frequency. Strong main effects were obtained for the average fundamental frequency manipulation, with high voices rated as significantly less attractive to women than either medium or low voices, which do not differ in attractiveness. The main effects of manipulations of variance of fundamental frequency on vocal attractiveness and benevolence did not reach significance, but there was a significant interaction on the benevolence factor, with high or low average fundamental frequency manipulations being rated particularly low for voices with low variance of fundamental frequency.     

Symmetry in Motion: Perception of Attractiveness Changes with Facial Movement

Facial symmetry is an index of developmental stability and shows a positive correlation with attractiveness assessment. However, the appearance of one’s facial symmetry is not always static and may change when there is facial movement while a person is speaking. This study examined whether viewing a dynamic image of a person speaking (where facial symmetry may alter) would elicit a different perception of attractiveness than viewing a static image of that person as a still photo. We examined changes in both measured and perceived facial symmetry in relation to attractiveness perception. We found that when facial movements created an appearance of overall greater facial symmetry while a person was speaking in a video, the person was rated as being more attractive than as a still photo. Likewise, those with facial movements measured and perceived as less symmetrical while speaking were rated as less attractive in a video clip than still photo. By examining the perception of faces in motion as we typically encounter others in real life rather than considering only static photos, we have extended the ecological validity of the study of the perception of bilateral symmetry in humans as it relates to attractiveness.     

The Perception and Parameters of Intentional Voice Manipulation

Evidence suggests that people can manipulate their vocal intonations to convey a host of emotional, trait, and situational images. We asked 40 participants (20 men and 20 women) to intentionally manipulate the sound of their voices in order to portray four traits: attractiveness, confidence, dominance, and intelligence to compare these samples to their normal speech. We then asked independent raters of the same- and opposite-sex to assess the degree to which each voice sample projected the given trait. Women’s manipulated voices were judged as sounding more attractive than their normal voices, but this was not the case for men. In contrast, men’s manipulated voices were rated by women as sounding more confident than their normal speech, but this did not hold true for women’s voices. Further, women were able to manipulate their voices to sound just as dominant as the men’s manipulated voices, and both sexes were able to modify their voices to sound more intelligent than their normal voice. We also assessed all voice samples objectively using spectrogram analyses and several vocal patterns emerged for each trait; among them we found that when trying to sound sexy/attractive, both sexes slowed their speech and women lowered their pitch and had greater vocal hoarseness. Both sexes raised their pitch and spoke louder to sound dominant and women had less vocal hoarseness. These findings are discussed using an evolutionary perspective and implicate voice modification as an important, deliberate aspect of communication, especially in the realm of mate selection and competition.     

Exploring Facebook: Attachment Style and Nonverbal Message Characteristics as Predictors of Anticipated Emotional Reactions to Facebook Postings

The present study investigates people’s perceived likelihood of experiencing negative emotion in response to a potentially jealousy-inducing Facebook wall post that was ostensibly sent by a rival. Facebook messages were varied so that participants (n = 821) viewed a message containing text only or text plus either an attractive or unattractive photo of the sender, a winking face emoticon, words in all capitals, or triple exclamation points. Participants were then asked to indicate the degree of negative emotion they would feel if they saw this message on their romantic partner’s Facebook wall. The addition of wink-face emoticons and physical attractiveness cues in a Facebook wall post contributed to differences in likely experienced emotion. Participants also reported a greater likelihood of experiencing negative emotion if they were high in preoccupied attachment and low in dismissive attachment. Finally, women reported being more likely to experience negative interpersonal affect in response to the Facebook post than did men. Implications for the role nonverbal cues play in computer-mediated contexts, such as Facebook, are discussed.     

Unionism and employment conflict resolution: Rethinking collective voice and its consequences

IX. Conclusions and Overall Assessment The central proposition advanced by F&;M is that the collective voice/response face of unionism more than counterbalances the monopoly face of unionism. Following this reasoning, it may be concluded that union workers would remain unionized and nonunion workers would become unionized. But what if the collective voice/response face of unionism does not more than counterbalance (let alone “dominate”) the monopoly face of unionism? Suppose that, consistent with the evidence presented herein, the exercise of voice in the employment relationship leads to further deterioration of the employment relationship rather than to the effective redress of worker grievances? In this circumstance, existing unions would lose members, and unorganized workers would choose not to become union members. Supposition aside, there is no question that unionization continues to decline sharply. When F&;M's book first appeared, about one in five private sector workers belonged to a union; today, less than one in eight private sector workers belongs to a union. But while F&;M and, later, Freeman and Rogers (1999), attributed the decline in unionization to employer/management opposition and weak labor law, some of this decline can be attributed to worker resistance. Such resistance may stem, in turn and following F&;M, from recognition of the net negative consequences of unionism's monopoly face, but also, and contrary to F&;M, from recognition of the net negative consequences of unionism's collective voice/response face. If workers judged unions' voice response face, in particular, grievance procedures, to be effective in redressing worker grievances, more union workers would likely remain union members and more unorganized workers would join unions — even in the “face” of employer opposition. While there is little question that there are widely varying types of real-world employment relationships or that unions are best suited to protecting worker interests in certain of these (usually highly adversarial) relationships, the fact that workers as a whole decreasingly choose to become union members suggests that they do not perceive union voice to be effective in redressing deteriorated employment relationships or to be more effective in this respect than nonunion voice options. Such reasoning is consistent with the picture sketched in this paper — a different picture from that forwarded by F&;M — of unionism and grievance procedures as largely reactive, adversarial-oriented mechanisms for dealing with workplace conflict resolution, especially in a pluralist, mixed-motive type of employment relationship.     

Attraktivität, Reziprozität und Lehrveranstaltungsevaluation

In this article we investigate the relationship between academic teachers’ attractiveness and their students’ evaluations of teaching. Furthermore it is examined, whether teachers’ grading influences students’ evaluations of teaching. Using data from an experimental design, hypotheses about attractiveness effects, frog-pond-effects, moderating gender effects and influences of grading are empirically tested. Controlling for confounding factors we find a very weak attractiveness effect, which can partly, but not only be ascribed to beauty’s productivity enhancing influence. Thereby, independently from the raters’ sex, female teachers profit from their looks. In contrast to that attractive male teachers are even sanctioned more strongly by their students for difficult tests than unattractive teachers. The frog-pond-hypothesis cannot empirically be supported: the attractiveness of teachers’ colleagues has no influence on the attractiveness effect. However, reciprocal evaluation behavior can consistently be found in the theoretical expected manner. It is substantially more relevant for students’ evaluations of teaching than attractiveness effects are. Alternative explanations for this grading effect can be excluded.     

THERAPIST PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS: AN UNEXPLORED INFLUENCE ON CLIENT DISCLOSURE

Existing research indicates that clients perceive facially attractive therapists as more competent, trustworthy, genuine, and effective than less attractive therapists. No Studies exist to help explain how the therapist's attractiveness influences a client's self-disclosure. Participants (n = 241) were randomly assigned to one of eight experimental groups to test the interaction of the therapist's attractiveness, client's gender, the nature of presenting problem, and the client's comfort with disclosing in a hypothetical couple therapy scenario. Analysis of variance procedures established that most participants reported feeling more comfortable disclosing a benign (communications) problem than a potentially embarrassing (sexual) problem, and more comfortable disclosing problem to an attractive than to a less attractive female therapist. Therapists are encouraged to understand the power attractiveness may have in their own and their client's lives     

An Exploratory Study of the Effects of Teacher Attractiveness on Undergraduates' Perceptions of Teacher–Student Sexual Involvement

This study explored whether the attractiveness of a teacher affected perceptions of teacher sexual misconduct. Respondents (120 female and 108 male undergraduates) read scenarios depicting teacher sexual misconduct varied by gender dyad (male teacher–female student and female teacher–male student) and two levels of attractiveness (very attractive or ordinary looking). The attractiveness of the teacher had little impact on respondents' perceptions. Significant interactions emerged on most variables between respondent gender and gender dyad. Specifically, male respondents tended to view the female teacher–male student dyad as less negative than the male teacher–female student dyad. Female respondents generally did not make a distinction based on the gender dyad.     

The Impact of Physical Attractiveness on Women's Social Status and Interactional Power

This article tests hypotheses derived from status-generalization theory and communication-accommodation theory that behaviors resulting from status inequalities emerge when attractiveness differentiates dyads. Relying on unobtrusive acoustic analysis of 24 women's voices, we test the extent to which (1) women adjust nonverbal behavior to one another; (2) more attractive women exert more influence than less attractive partners; and (3) the effects of attractiveness on influence are stronger if a greater relative difference exists between partners. Findings suggest that if two interacting women are similarly attractive, then they compete dynamically for status, which informs recent developments in the expectation-states research program. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Washington, DC in August 2000.     

Preschool children's ability to identify and label emotions

The present study examined preschoolers' and adults' ability to identify and label the emotions of happiness, sadness, and anger when presented through either the face channel alone, the voice channel alone, or the face and voice channels together. Subjects were also asked to rate the intensity of the expression. The results revealed that children aged three to five years are able to accurately identify and label emotions of happy, sad, and angry regardless of channel presentation. Similar results were obtained for the adult group. While younger children (33 to 53 months of age) were equally accurate in identifying the three emotions, older children (54 to 68 months of age) and adults made more incorrect responses when identifying expressions of sadness. Intensity ratings also differed according to the age of the subject and the emotion being rated.Support for this research was from a grant by the National Science Foundatin (#01523721) to Nathan A. Fox. The authors would like to thank Professor A. Caron for providing the original videotape, Joyce Dinsmoor for her help in data collection and the staff of the Center for Young Children for their cooperation.     

Fear Attenuated and Affection Augmented: Male Self-Presentation in a Romantic Context

We investigated whether males use facial behavior strategically in order to increase their desirability as romantic partners. Participants were led to believe that a female research assistant who was either attractive or unattractive was observing them. Their task was to watch three short films: an excerpt from a horror film, a video of infants, and a neutral film. Males who thought they were being observed by the attractive assistant frowned less (AU4) while watching the horror film and smiled more (AU12, with and without AU6) while watching the infant film. Assistant attractiveness did not affect males’ facial behavior while they were watching the neutral film.     

Newborn Infants' Preference for Attractive Faces: The Role of Internal and External Facial Features

Several previous experiments have found that newborn and young infants will spend more time looking at attractive faces when these are shown paired with faces judged by adults to be unattractive. Two experimental conditions are described with the aim of finding whether the “attractiveness effect” results from attention to internal or external facial features, or both. Pairs of attractive and less attractive faces (as judged by adults) were shown to newborn infants (mean age 2 days, 9 hours), where each pair had either identical internal features (and different external features) or identical external features (and different internal features). In the latter, but not the former, condition the infants looked longer at the attractive faces. These findings are clear evidence that newborn infants use information about internal facial features in making preferences based on attractiveness. It is suggested that when newborn (and older) infants are presented with facial stimuli, whether dynamic or static, they are able to attend both to internal and external facial features.     

Physical Attractiveness and Electability:

The link between physical attractiveness and electability is explored in this aricle. "Looks" are the sole cue in an experimental voting situation; and subjects "vote" for males they have previously rated attractive but treat attractive female candidates quite differently. Subjects, male and female, are more likely to vote for women they consider less attractive. While the overall pattern does not change significantly according to the type of office sought by the candidates, some variation exists. Attractive women fare better as candidates for Congress than they do when running for state or local offices.     

“Feeling frumpy”: The relationships between body image and sexual response changes in midlife women

This study investigated the relationships between self‐rated attractiveness and self‐reported sexual response changes (over the past decade) and current sexual satisfaction in 307 heterosexual, midlife women. Results indicated that regardless of the woman's specific age, she was more likely to consider herself more attractive when she was 10 years younger, and her self‐perceived attractiveness did not significantly differ based on her menopausal status. The more a woman perceived herself as less attractive than before, the more likely she was to report a decline in sexual desire or frequency of sexual activity. The more she perceived herself as attractive, the more likely she was to experience an increase in sexual desire, orgasm, enjoyment, or frequency of sexual activity. There were no significant statistical relationships between a woman's perception of her own attractiveness as she aged and her current sexual satisfaction.     

Preschool children's ability to identify and label emotions

The present study examined preschoolers' and adults' ability to identify and label the emotions of happiness, sadness, and anger when presented through either the face channel alone, the voice channel alone, or the face and voice channels together. Subjects were also asked to rate the intensity of the expression. The results revealed that children aged 3 to 5 years are able to accurately identify and label emotions of happy, sad, and angry regardless of channel presentation. Similar results were obtained for the adult group. While younger children (33 to 53 months of age) were equally accurate in identifying the three emotions, older children (54 to 68 months of age) and adults made more incorrect responses when identifying expressions of sadness. Intensity ratings also differed according to the age of the subject and the emotion being rated.Support for this research was from a grant by the National Science Foundation (#BNS8317229) to Nathan A. Fox. The research was also supported by a grant awarded to Nathan Fox from the National Institutes of Health (#R01MH/HD17899). The authors would like to thank Professor A. Caron for providing the original videotape, Joyce Dinsmoor for help in data collection and the staff of the Center for Young Children for their cooperation.