Persuasion of voices: The effects of a speaker’s voice characteristics and gender on consumers’ responses

Abstract

Voices are present in most communications. Yet, the literature on voice persuasion is astonishingly limited and fragmented, focusing on certain voice characteristics (e.g. pitch), contexts, and providing mixed results. This research attempts to integrate the various constructs and mechanisms involved in voice persuasion as a result of the cross-fertilization of the disciplines having studied voice (psychoacoustics, cognitive psychology, anthropology, psycho-sociology, marketing, and politics). Study 1 manipulates via acoustic software the key voice characteristics (i.e. pitch, roughness, and brightness) and gender of a speaker heard in a radio advertisement for a neutral, non-gendered product category. Study 2 explores a potential boundary condition of the effects of voice, the presence of context-specific expectations toward the speaker (i.e. gender and competence level), by manipulating the voice of a political candidate. The effects of the voice characteristics are consistent in both contexts: speakers with low- (vs high-) pitched, dull (vs bright), and smooth (vs rough) voices are the most effective. Speakers with high-pitched, dull, and smooth voices are perceived as the most competent. Finally, speaker gender plays a secondary persuasive role; listener gender only plays a role in the absence of context-specific expectations toward the speaker. Implications for voice and speaker persuasion as well as for voice casting and coaching are discussed.

Developing voice-based branding: insights from the Mercedes case

“…Previous studies adopting the consumer perspective indirectly confirm our findings regarding the role of brand voice characteristicsgender (Wiener and Chartrand, 2014;Zoghaib, 2017), pitch (Zoghaib, 2017;Zoghaib, 2019), accent (Morales et al, 2012) and speed (MacLachlan, 1982) in the perception of specific brand personality traits (e.g. W&C).…”

“…As shown in Table 1, the most commonly analysed voice characteristics are time compression and speed (MacLachlan, 1982;Moore et al, 1986;Chattonadhyay et al, 2003;Megehee et al, 2003), pitch (Chattonadhyay et al, 2003;Wiener and Chartrand, 2014;Zoghaib, 2017;Zoghaib, 2019), gender (Whipple and McManamon, 2002;Wiener and Chartrand, 2014;Zoghaib, 2017) and accent (Morales et al, 2012). While these characteristics have mainly been studied in commercial advertising contexts focussed on traditional radio media, several interesting empirical results connected to branding outcomes have appeared such as brand recall, brand attitude and brand evaluation as well as perceptions in terms of warmth and competence (W&C).…”

“…Voice characterisƟcs and branding outcomes Moore et al, 1986;ChaƩonadyay et al, 2003;Morales et al, 2012;Wiener and Chartrand, 2014;Zoghaib, 2017;Zoghaib, 2019 Brand personality Aaker, 1997;Aaker et al, 2001 Brand anthropomorphism Epley et al, 2007;Puzakova et al, 2009;Guido and Peluso, 2015;Belk and Kniazeva, 2018;Vernuccio et al, 2019 Brand experience Brakus et al, 2009;Zarantonello and SchmiƩ, 2010;Khan and Rahman, 2015;Calder et al, 2016;Ahn and Back, 2018;Andreini et al, 2018;PrenƟce et al, 2019 Customer experience management Homburg et al, 2017;Braun et al, 2019;Sotolongo and Copulsky, 2019 Customer brand engagement Brakus et al, 2009;Hollebeek et al, 2011;Brodie et al, 2013;Calder et al, 2016;Ahn andBack, 2018 PrenƟce et al, 2019 Customer engagement markeƟng Harmeling et al, 2017;Alvarez-Milán et al, 2018…”

Match or Mismatch? How Matching Personality and Gender between Voice Assistants and Users Affects Trust in Voice Commerce

“…When someone cannot be seen, their voice becomes more important; this is the case for podcasts and sales calls, where speakers are physically invisible. The auditory cues of the speaker's voice are then critical for the listener's perception and engagement intention [14,15]. Auditory cues are those that can be heard but are not expressed in words.…”

“…As such cues can be particularly powerful in conveying gender [16] and personality traits (especially the individual's degree of extraversion or introversion) [17,18], research has largely focused on these two traits. However, studies have found varying results, depending on the characteristics and context [14].…”