Stereotyping Based on Voice in the Presence of Individuating Information: Vocal Femininity Affects Perceived Competence but Not Warmth

Abstract

about the category membership of stereotyped individuals (e.g., African American vs. White individuals) but also on physical cues or features that are associated with category membership but that concurrently vary within each category (e.g., Blair, Judd, & Chapleau, 2004;Blair, Judd, & Fallman, 2004;Blair, Judd, Sadler, & Jenkins, 2002;Eberhardt, Davies, Purdie-Vaughns, & Johnson, 2006;Livingston & Brewer, 2002;Maddox & Gray, 2002). So for instance, both Whites and African Americans who are clearly identified as members of one category or the other, but who vary in Afrocentric facial Editor's Note: Dr. Peter Glick served as guest action editor for this article.Authors' Note: Support for this research was provided by NIMH grants R01-MH45049 to the second author and "Pionier" Grant "Making Sense of Hot Cognition," by the Dutch National Science Foundation (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) to the third author. We are grateful to Jaap Bos, Hans van Gestal, Hans Veldman, and Pieter Zandbergen for their technical support and to Kirsten Ruys and Eric Rietzschel for assistance with translations. We thank David Marx and Dominique Muller for helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. We particularly thank Marloes Schwinghammer for all her help throughout this research project. Correspondence may be sent to Sei Jin Ko, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208; e-mail: seijin-ko@northwestern.edu. Vol. 35 No. 2, February 2009 198-211 DOI: 10.1177/0146167208326477 © 2009 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc. It is clear from this past work that physical features can and do affect stereotypic perceptions. Nonetheless, life is not like a silent movie in which we are only provided with images of a target individual. Indeed, our social world is made up of more than what we soak in through our eyes. Undoubtedly, the visual aspects of the actors in silent movies-visual cues that are diagnostic of race and gender, for instance-provide a rich and fascinating basis for stereotypic inferences, but what if the actors' silent mouth movements gave way to audible vocalizations? Would their vocal cues also lead perceivers to stereotype them? Just thinking about how vividly and potently voices on the radio or the telephone can conjure up images of the speakers suggests that the anecdotal answer to this question is a resounding yes. PSPB, In two experiments the authors examined the effect of vocal cues on warmth and competence judgments when other competing information was concurrently available. In Experiment 1, using male and female speakers posing as job applicants, the authors investigated how applicants' vocal cues and résumé information impacted judgments of competence and warmth. Results showed competence was solely affected by vocal femininity-applicants with masculine voices were rated as more competent than applicants with feminine voices, regardless of applicant gender or résumé information. Warmth was predominantly affec...

Gay- and Lesbian-Sounding Auditory Cues Elicit Stereotyping and Discrimination

“…For male job candidates, having a gay-sounding voice created a clear disadvantage when applying for a typically masculine, high-status position (Study 2a). Moreover, women with gender-atypical voices were discriminated when applying for a masculine job, despite the fact that masculinity is generally associated with greater leadership abilities (Schein, Mueller, Lituchy, & Liu, 1996), masculine lesbians are judged as more competent (Niedlich, Steffens, Krause, Settke, & Ebert, 2015), and masculine voice is associated with greater competence (Ko et al, 2009). Hence, heterosexism takes distinct forms for gay and lesbian individuals.…”

“…For instance, are gay men stereotyped and discriminated because they sound gay or because they sound feminine? There is ample evidence that feminine sound (such as high pitch) is associated with reduced competence and leadership capacity both within and across gender groups (e.g., Klofstad et al, 2012; Ko et al, 2009) and that this occurs independently of sexual orientation. Similarly, our data suggest that gender-inverted inferences are common even among those participants who did not identify the speaker as gay or lesbian.…”

“…As happens for visual perception (Blair et al, 2002), on one side auditory cues may trigger a social categorization (gay vs. heterosexual), which in turn activates corresponding stereotypes and behavioral responses. On the other side, it may activate stereotypes directly, in the absence of categorization, only based on people’s vocal features (see Ko, Judd, & Blair, 2006; Ko, Judd, & Stapel, 2009). Concretely, speakers may be stereotyped and/or discriminated either because they are categorized as gay (category-based process) or simply because they sound feminine (feature-based process).…”

Voice-based assessments of trustworthiness, competence, and warmth in blind and sighted adults

“…Ko et al (2009) similarly reported that although job applicants with masculine voices were judged as being more competent, vocal masculinity/femininity did not predict judgments of warmth. Warmth entails “other-profitable” traits with immediate benefits to the assessor, as well as costs if it is misjudged (Fiske et al, 2007).…”

“…Indeed, studies with sighted listeners have indicated that speakers with low voice pitch are typically perceived as being more competent and trustworthy than speakers with higher voice pitch (Klofstad, Anderson, & Nowicki, 2015; McAleer, Todorov, & Belin, 2014; Tigue, Borak, O’Connor, Schandl, & Feinberg, 2012; Tsantani, Belin, Paterson, & McAleer, 2016). In contrast, studies examining voice-based assessments of warmth have produced equivocal results (Berry, 1991; Hughes, Pastizzo, & Gallup, 2008; Ko, Judd, & Stapel, 2009; McAleer et al, 2014). Recently, McAleer et al.…”