The Effects of Four Voice Qualities on the Perception of a Female Voice

Stimuli produced by a female speaker with four different voice qualities, including modal, girlish, breathy and creaky, and three different pitches, were manipulated so that their formants were either more or less dispersed. Participants judged these stimuli on four scales (dominance, attractiveness, sexiness and youthfulness). Modal voice was highly rated for dominance. Creakiness was rated more highly for dominance than breathiness, and women rated creaky voice as more dominant than men. Breathiness was highly rated in voice judgments of attractiveness and sexiness, as was lowered pitch associated with breathiness. Girlish voice was highly rated for youthfulness, and women found girlish voices more attractive than men. Voices with a raised pitch and creaky voice quality also received relatively high youthfulness ratings. Acknowledgment We are very grateful to Laura Dulude for her assistance in the research for this paper. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Andrea Levitt, Green Hall, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481. Email: [email protected]