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Women's Vocal Reactions to Intimate and Casual Male Friends

Wellesley College

Cynthia Vega

Wellesley College

To further our understanding of the impact of social factors on women's vocal behavior, women's vocal reactions to different male friends were examined. Specifically, subjects listened to women talking to intimate and casual male friends on the telephone, made ratings about women's vocal qualities and psychological traits, and identified with whom they thought the women were speaking. Several baby-talk-related aspects of the women's speech were also assessed by two independent judges. Results revealed not only that subjects could identify women's conversation partners at better than chance levels but also that subjects perceived women as more approachable, sincere, submissive, and scatterbrained when talking to intimate than to casual friends. Women manifested more feminine and babyish paralinguistic vocal qualities when talking to intimate versus casual friends; however, no differences were found in the linguistic features of women's speech coded by judges. As well, no differences in perceptions of speakers were found in a second group of subjects who read transcripts of the women's conversations. The present findings suggest that paralinguistic rather than linguistic features or content of women's vocal reactions influence perceptions of them when they are conversing with different male friends. Possible social functions served by women's vocal reactions to intimate versus casual friends are discussed, and hypotheses are offered to explain impressions created by differences in women's vocal behavior.

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