"Do I Sound Straight?": Acoustic Correlates of Actual and Perceived Sexual Orientation and Masculinity/Femininity in Men's Speech. 2018

Sven Kachel, and Adrian P Simpson, and Melanie C Steffens
DFG Research Unit Person Perception, Institute of Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany.

This study aims to give an integrative answer on which speech stereotypes exist toward German gay and straight men, whether and how acoustic correlates of actual and perceived sexual orientation are connected, and how this relates to masculinity/femininity. Hence, it tests speech stereotype accuracy in the context of sexual orientation. Twenty-five gay and 26 straight German speakers provided data for a fine-grained psychological self-assessment (e.g., masculinity/femininity) and explicit speech stereotypes. They were recorded for an extensive set of read and spontaneous speech samples using microphones and nasometry. Recordings were analyzed for a variety of acoustic parameters (e.g., fundamental frequency and nasalance). Seventy-four listeners categorized speakers as gay or straight on the basis of the same sentence. Most relevant explicitly expressed speech stereotypes encompass voice pitch, nasality, chromaticity, and smoothness. Demonstrating implicit stereotypes, speakers were perceived as sounding straighter, the lower their median f0, center of gravity in /s/, and mean F2. However, based on actual sexual orientation, straight men only showed lower mean F1 than gay men. Additionally, we found evidence that actual masculinity/femininity and the degree of sexual orientation were reflected in gay and straight men's speech. Implicit and explicit speech stereotypes about gay and straight men do not contain a kernel of truth, and differences within groups are more important than differences between them. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6484001.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D012938 Social Perception The perceiving of attributes, characteristics, and behaviors of one's associates or social groups. Perception, Social,Perceptions, Social,Social Perceptions
D013061 Speech Acoustics The acoustic aspects of speech in terms of frequency, intensity, and time. Acoustics, Speech,Acoustic, Speech,Speech Acoustic
D013067 Speech Perception The process whereby an utterance is decoded into a representation in terms of linguistic units (sequences of phonetic segments which combine to form lexical and grammatical morphemes). Speech Discrimination,Discrimination, Speech,Perception, Speech
D013240 Stereotyping An oversimplified perception or conception especially of persons, social groups, etc. Stigmatization
D055815 Young Adult A person between 19 and 24 years of age. Adult, Young,Adults, Young,Young Adults
D057227 Femininity Female-associated sex-specific social roles and behaviors unrelated to biologic function.
D057228 Masculinity Male-associated sex-specific social roles and behaviors unrelated to biologic function.

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