The “beauty premium” effect of voice attractiveness of long speech sounds in outcome-evaluation event-related potentials in a trust game

Abstract

Previous research suggested that people with attractive voices had an advantage in economic games, even if the voices were only presented for 400 ms. The present study investigated the influence of voice attractiveness on the cooperative trust behavior with longer exposure times to the voices. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the feedback outcome evaluation. Participants heard a voice of the partner for 2,040 ms and decided whether to invest to the partner for a possibility to gain more money. The results showed that participants made more invest choices to the attractive partners, replicating the “beauty premium” effect of the attractive voices. Moreover, participants were more likely to invest to male partners. The ERP analysis for the outcome showed that the difference waves of feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitude were smaller in the attractive voice condition than in the unattractive voice condition, suggesting that the rewarding effect of attractive voices weakened the frustrating feelings of the loss. In sum, the present study confirms that attractive voices with longer presentation durations facilitate cooperative behavior and modulate the processing of feedback evaluations.

Voice attractiveness and decision making in third‐party punishment

“…They were also judged as more reasonable than those with an unattractive voice. These findings are consistent with previous studies that also revealed a beauty premium effect of voice attractiveness (Shang et al, 2021 ; Shang & Liu, 2022a , 2022b ). However, while participants' decisions in the past studies had financial consequences riding on them, the present study shows that similar effects can be observed even when participants are third parties who are not involved in the monetary payoff.…”

“…Prior research has shown that the effect of voice attractiveness was stronger for a longer voice duration than a shorter one (Shang & Liu, 2022a , 2022b ). However, the effect of the two durations was the same in the present study.…”

“…Allocations of ¥50 or ¥40 were considered fair, ¥30 was considered mildly unfair, and ¥10 or ¥20 were considered unfair. The stimuli were 36 attractive and 36 unattractive 400‐ms voices and 24 attractive and 24 unattractive 2040‐ms voices (Shang & Liu, 2022a , 2022b ). Each 400‐ms voice pronounces one of five nonsense syllables (/a/, /ai/, /ao/, /ei/, /ou/), and each 2040‐ms voice pronounces three nonsense syllables (/i/, /a/, /ou/).…”

“…In economic games, participants are more willing to accept unfair offers from proposers with an attractive voice (Shang et al, 2021 ; Shang & Liu, 2022a , 2022b ). This effect seems to be stronger when the voice lasts for a longer period of time (2040 ms) than a shorter one (400 ms) (Shang & Liu, 2022a , 2022b ).…”

“…In economic games, participants are more willing to accept unfair offers from proposers with an attractive voice (Shang et al, 2021 ; Shang & Liu, 2022a , 2022b ). This effect seems to be stronger when the voice lasts for a longer period of time (2040 ms) than a shorter one (400 ms) (Shang & Liu, 2022a , 2022b ). However, since human cooperation involves both fair exchange and punishment of violators of social norms (Fehr & Gächter, 2002 ), it is essential to know whether effects of voice attractiveness also extend to punishing behaviors.…”