Mechanism underlying the self‐enhancement effect of voice attractiveness evaluation: self‐positivity bias and familiarity effect

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to determine whether the self‐enhancement effect of voice attractiveness evaluation is due to general self‐positivity bias and/or the familiarity effect. The participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of their own voice, a friend's voice and strangers' voices. In addition, a self‐reference valence (SR‐valence) task was adopted in the experiment. Significant self‐enhancement effects in voice attractiveness ratings were demonstrated, regardless of whether the participants recognized their self‐voice or not. However, the friend‐enhancement effect was found in only those participants who successfully recognized their friend's voice. Moreover, a significant correlation was found between self‐positivity bias in the SR‐valence task and the self‐enhancement effect (but not the friend‐enhancement effect). Our findings suggest that both the familiarity effect and self‐positivity bias account for the vocal self‐enhancement effect, and the influence of self‐positivity bias could be implicit. The present study thus provides empirical evidence to clarify the potential explanations for the self‐enhancement of voice attractiveness assessment.

Gender context modulation on the self‐enhancement effect of vocal attractiveness evaluation

“…According to the definition of the self-enhancement effect of vocal attractiveness evaluation (Hughes & Harrison, 2013;Peng et al, 2020;Peng et al, 2019), it could be indicated by two means. From the perspective of the rater, the self-enhancementeffect refers to the phenomenon that people tend to rate their own voices as more attractive than others rate their voices; thus, the self-enhancement effect (termed "SE_rater") could be calculated by subtracting the mean rating scores of the "Selfby-Other" condition from the mean ratings of the "Self-by-Self" condition (i.e., SE_rater = Self-by-Self -Self-by-Other).…”

“…However, only three studies to date have explored the evaluation of self-voice attractiveness (Hughes & Harrison, 2013;Peng, Hu, Wang, & Liu, 2020;Peng, Wang, Meng, Liu, & Hu, 2019). They all found that there was a significant selfenhancement effect; that is, people evaluated their own voices as sounding more attractive than others rated their voices (this refers to the self-enhancement effect from the perspective of the rater), and people also rated their own voices as more attractive than the voices of others (this refers to the selfenhancement effect from the perspective of the voice) (Hughes & Harrison, 2013;Peng et al, 2020;Peng et al, 2019).…”

“…However, only three studies to date have explored the evaluation of self-voice attractiveness (Hughes & Harrison, 2013;Peng, Hu, Wang, & Liu, 2020;Peng, Wang, Meng, Liu, & Hu, 2019). They all found that there was a significant selfenhancement effect; that is, people evaluated their own voices as sounding more attractive than others rated their voices (this refers to the self-enhancement effect from the perspective of the rater), and people also rated their own voices as more attractive than the voices of others (this refers to the selfenhancement effect from the perspective of the voice) (Hughes & Harrison, 2013;Peng et al, 2020;Peng et al, 2019). In these three studies on self-voice attractiveness evaluation, the participants rated the vocal attractiveness either in the same-sex context (Peng et al, 2020;Peng et al, 2019) or in a mixedgender context (i.e., male and female participants rated both male and female voices in a random way) (Hughes & Harrison, 2013).…”

“…They all found that there was a significant selfenhancement effect; that is, people evaluated their own voices as sounding more attractive than others rated their voices (this refers to the self-enhancement effect from the perspective of the rater), and people also rated their own voices as more attractive than the voices of others (this refers to the selfenhancement effect from the perspective of the voice) (Hughes & Harrison, 2013;Peng et al, 2020;Peng et al, 2019). In these three studies on self-voice attractiveness evaluation, the participants rated the vocal attractiveness either in the same-sex context (Peng et al, 2020;Peng et al, 2019) or in a mixedgender context (i.e., male and female participants rated both male and female voices in a random way) (Hughes & Harrison, 2013). As the gender context of the attractiveness evaluation was either not considered (Peng et al, 2020;Peng et al, 2019) or not systematically manipulated (Hughes & Harrison, 2013), it remains unclear whether the selfenhancement effect of self-voice evaluation in the pure samesex evaluation context differs from that in the pure oppositesex context.…”

“…In these three studies on self-voice attractiveness evaluation, the participants rated the vocal attractiveness either in the same-sex context (Peng et al, 2020;Peng et al, 2019) or in a mixedgender context (i.e., male and female participants rated both male and female voices in a random way) (Hughes & Harrison, 2013). As the gender context of the attractiveness evaluation was either not considered (Peng et al, 2020;Peng et al, 2019) or not systematically manipulated (Hughes & Harrison, 2013), it remains unclear whether the selfenhancement effect of self-voice evaluation in the pure samesex evaluation context differs from that in the pure oppositesex context. Thus, the present study attempts to address this issue for the first time.…”