Mediating interpersonal expectancies via vocal cues: Differential speech intensity as a means of social influence

Abstract

Differential vocal emphasis in the tape-recorded instruction reading for a standard person perception task was manipulated by mechanically raising or lowering the volume of the key words describing the success or failure response alternatives on the rating scale. In a series of three experiments, Ss exposed to success emphasis

Desirability of control versus locus of control: Relationship to paralinguistics in the Type A interview.

“…Specifically, the present data suggest that Type A voice stylistics may, in part, also evolve in the service of control needs. The following findings are consistent with this interpretation: (a) high vocal intensity has been associated with successful persuasive communication and social influence (Packwood, 1974;Scherer, Rosenthal, & Koivumaki, 1972); (b) rapid speech has been related to higher ratings of speaker competence, and with increased persuasiveness of a communication through enhancement of speaker credibility (Miller, Maruyama, Beaber, & Valme, 1973;Smith, Brown, Strong, & Rencher, 1975); (c) vocal assertiveness of source authority figures has led to enhanced inducement of actual behavior change in accordance with source recommendations in both laboratory and field settings (Bugental & Love, 1975;Duncan & Rosenthal, 1968;Matarazzo, 1965;Milmoe, Rosenthal, Blane, Chafetz, & Wolf, 1967;Natale, 1975); (d) vigorous voice intonation has been associated with successful domination of group conversation and ratings of Type A-like characteristics of dominance, assertiveness, extraversion, and the like (Bugental, 1974;Conroy & Sundstrom, 1977;Natale, Elliot, & Jaffe, 1979;Zuckerman, Amidon, Bishop, & Pomerantz, 1982); (e) similarly, such vocal intonation has been related to internal rather than external causal attributions in experimental situations (Bugental, Henker, & Whalen, 1976); (f) noncontent speech parameters have been established as a stable individual difference variable (Matarazzo, 1965;Welkowitz, Feldstein, Finkelstein, & Angelsworth, 1972), that provide little internal feedback to the source (i.e., low awareness for speaker), but generate high salience for the listener (Bugental, 1974;Holtzman & Rousey, 1966;Matarazzo, 1965); and (g) despite the fact that voice characteristics of one individual can influence such noncontent mannerisms in others, many individuals cannot successfully alter their voice parameters even when instructed to do so (Black, 1949;Matarazzo, 1965;Natale, 1975). In sum, noncontent speech mannerisms have been established as reliable individual difference variables that have been systematically related to a variety of outcomes generally consistent with both the conceptual definition of the TABP a...…”

The role of intonation for interrogative suggestibility

“…The accentuation of selected content makes it possible to delineate information that is new and considered relevant as well as unexpected from old, unimportant, and expected information. The impact of increased accentuation has been experimentally shown for loudness variations that were positively linked to social influence (Gehm, Appel, & Apsel, 1989;Scherer, Rosenthal, & Koivumaki, 1972). Furthermore, two sentences that are identical on the lexical level may have different meanings due to the accentuation of different syllables or words (e.g., "He went to the movies" vs. "He went to the movies").…”

A phonetic study of Zootopia characters’ voices in Brazilian Portuguese dubbing: the role of stereotypes

“…In addition, Scherer (1979) points out how cultural differences can make the comparison of studies in different languages diffi cult. The 1970s were indeed productive in terms of research works focusing the roles of voice qualities in determining psychological and social states (Scherer, 1972(Scherer, , 1979(Scherer, , 1989Scherer, Uno and Rosenthal,1972;Scherer, Rosenthal and Koivumaki, 1972;Giles, Scherer and Taylor 1973;Scherer, London and Wolf , 1973).…”