Angry, old, male – and trustworthy? How expressive and person voice characteristics shape listener trust

Abstract

This study examined how trustworthiness impressions depend on vocal expressive and person characteristics and how their dependence may be explained by acoustical profiles. Sentences spoken in a range of emotional and conversational expressions by 20 speakers differing in age and sex were presented to 80 age and sex matched listeners who rated speaker trustworthiness. Positive speaker valence but not arousal consistently predicted greater perceived trustworthiness. Additionally, voices from younger as compared with older and female as compared with male speakers were judged more trustworthy. Acoustic analysis highlighted several parameters as relevant for being perceived as trustworthy (i.e., accelerated tempo, low harmonic-to-noise ratio, more shimmer, low fundamental frequency, more jitter, large intensity range) and showed that effects partially overlapped with those for perceived speaker affect, age, but not sex. Specifically, a fast speech rate and a lower harmonic-to-noise ratio differentiated trustworthy from untrustworthy, positive from negative, and younger from older voices. Male and female voices differed in other ways. Together, these results show that a speaker's expressive as well as person characteristics shape trustworthiness impressions and that their effect likely results from a combination of lowlevel perceptual and higher-order conceptual processes.

The Time Course of Person Perception From Voices: A Behavioral Study

“…The presence of such a hierarchy and possible interactions between different person characteristics may thus also explain more generally how overgeneralization effects of perceived gender, age, and beyond on trait or person perception may arise (Zebrowitz, 2011). For example, the rapid perception of a voice being female may restrict the relatively slower impressions of that person's trustworthiness to being relatively high (Schirmer et al, 2020; see also Lavan & McGettigan, 2023).…”

Relevance theory and the social realities of communication

“…In a study on pitch and politics the authors conclude that “because women, on average, have higher-pitched voices than men, voice pitch could be a factor that contributes to fewer women holding leadership roles” ( Klofstad et al, 2012 ). Acoustic analysis has demonstrated that certain linguistic features are associated with trustworthiness, independent of attribution of a gender to the speaker, including “accelerated tempo, low harmonic-to-noise ratio, more shimmer, low fundamental frequency, more jitter, large intensity range” ( Schirmer et al, 2020 ). Physical bodily features also affect how a “credibility excess” or “credibility deficit” is attributed to interlocutors.…”

“…features are associated with trustworthiness, independent of attribution of a gender to the speaker, including "accelerated tempo, low harmonic-to-noise ratio, more shimmer, low fundamental frequency, more jitter, large intensity range" (Schirmer et al, 2020). Physical bodily features also affect how a "credibility excess" or "credibility deficit" is attributed to interlocutors.…”

Prediction of Inter-Personal Trust and Team Familiarity From Speech: A Double Transfer Learning Approach

“…Several studies have investigated the relationship between trust perception and speech [12][13][14][15][16]. In [12], voice models were evaluated to investigate the correlation between basic acoustical parameters and the perception of low and high trust.…”

“…Experiments conducted in [14] reported that low harmonicto-noise ratio, low mean fundamental frequency, and a fast speech rate are the most significant acoustic characteristics present in the perception of high trust. Additionally, tests comparing positive valence speakers against negative valence ones, younger voices against those with older voices, and female against male speakers showed that a higher perception of trust is achieved for positive valence speakers, younger voices, and female speakers, respectively.…”