Exploring the Universality in Personality Impressions from Brief, Novel Voices by Katherine Pearl Marcoux Master’s Thesis

When hearing a voice, we gather information about the individual, from physical information to their current mood. Additionally, from this interaction, we form personality judgments, which are consistent across listeners. Here, universality in personality judgments based on brief, novel voices is examined in two questions: Question 1 (Are the personality judgments and the dimensions of voice characteristics that people pay attention to the same across different languages?) and Question 2 (Do people make the same personality judgments and pay attention to the same voice characteristics in a foreign language as they do in their native language?). By testing personality impressions (aggressiveness, attractiveness, competence, confidence, dominance, likeability, trustworthiness, and warmth) from hearing “Hello” and “Hola” and comparing these results with McAleer, Todoroc, & Belin’s study (2014) we find that the majority of results of ratings can be summarized in a twodimensional social voice space defined by trustworthiness and dominance. This pattern suggests universality in personality judgments of voices. That is, it does not matter what your native language is nor what language the brief, novel voices are in because we form similar personality impressions. Additionally, the acoustical measurements the listener pays attention to for valence are explored.