Voice attractiveness: Influence of stimulus duration and type

Abstract

Voice attractiveness is a relatively new area of research. Some aspects of the methodology used in this domain deserve particular attention. Especially, the duration of voice samples is often neglected as a factor and happens to be manipulated without the perceptual consequences of these manipulations being known. Moreover, the type of voice stimulus varies from a single vowel to complex sentences. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the extent to which stimulus duration (nonmanipulated vs. normalized) and type (vowel vs. word) influence perceived voice attractiveness. Twenty-seven male and female raters made attractiveness judgments of 30 male and female voice samples. Voice samples included a single vowel /a/, a three-vowel series /i a o/, and the French word "bonjour" (i.e., "hello"). These samples were presented in three conditions: nonmanipulated, shortened, and lengthened duration. Duration manipulation was performed using the pitch synchronous overlap and add (PSOLA) algorithm implemented in Praat. Results for the effect of stimulus type showed that word length samples were more attractive to the opposite sex than vowels. Results for the effect of duration showed that the nonmanipulated sound sample duration was not predictive of perceived attractiveness. Duration manipulation, on the other hand, altered perceived attractiveness for the lengthening condition. In particular, there was a linear decrease in attractiveness as a function of modification percentage (especially for the word, as compared with the vowels). Recommendations for voice sample normalization with the PSOLA algorithm are thus to prefer shortening over lengthening and, if not possible, to limit the extent of duration manipulation-for example, by normalizing to the mean sample duration.

Androstadienone’s influence on the perception of facial and vocal attractiveness is not sex specific

“…Stimulus presentation was preceded by a 1000 ms fixation cross to ensure that the participants were prepared for the upcoming stimulus. Each stimulus was presented once for 100 ms for the faces and for 430-870 ms for the voice excerpts (depending on the speaker; duration was not modified to prevent alteration of attractiveness: Ferdenzi et al, 2013). Response time from the beginning of the stimulus was recorded, with a 3000 ms maximum response time allowed after the end of the stimulus presentation.…”

How Do You Say ‘Hello’? Personality Impressions from Brief Novel Voices

“…Thus far, studies of personality traits of novel speakers have used long ‘irrelevant’ passages of speech (>10 s duration) [12], [29] but see [10], introducing influence from uncontrolled parameters of speech prosody. Studies that do utilise brief and socially relevant stimuli have a sole focus on attractiveness of the speaker, neglecting other potentially important traits [50], [51]. In contrast, face perception emphasises a ‘first impression’ scenario via rapid presentation of static faces (<100 ms duration).…”

Co oznacza atrakcyjność fizyczna? Dyskusja o definicjach i ujęciach

“…Buggio i in., 2012;Wade, 2010), a takĪe sposobu mówienia, poruszania siĊ, mimiki czy pantomimiki (m.in. Cappelle i Fink, 2013;Ferdenzi, 2013;Mueser, Grau, Sussman i Rosen, 1984;Wells, 2013).…”