Judging personality from voice: A cross-cultural approach to an old issue in interpersonal perception1

Abstract

The s(x:ial psychologist mterested m the role of the human voice in Interpersonal perc^tion pr(x;esses will jBnd the stacks of pubhc hbranes a richly rewarding source of resource material.Specifically, he will find a fikxxi of popular books on how to improve one's voice in order to wm friends and infiuence people.Interestingly enough, sucdi efforts for voice improvement are seen as not only having a iavorahle effect on otiier people's impression of the speaker's personahty but are also (aredited with a (hrect positive inHuraice on the latter (Major, ig2o, p. 70, Nels(Mi & Atkinson, 1955, pp.156-157).It is not surprising, then, that tiie question of whether personality can be accurately inferred from voice has led to a large number of en^irical studies.Crowing out of the psy(diologi(^ approach^ to the study of expressive behavior (Buhler, WolflF, G W. All^rt), the pioneering studies by Pear (1931), Allp(^ and Cantril (1932), and Herzog (1^33) receivecl tiieir impetus from the developm^it of radio broadcasting.Later stu(]ies, well summarized by DieM (i960) and Kramer (1963), were facilitated by improved meitiiods for voice re(xn'ding sudi as the phonograph and the taperecorder.The basic research d^gn, used in all of 1 This papesr is based in part oo a dochmil dissertation in tfae Departn^ot rf Soaal Belatu»s at Harvard University A small part rf &o data has heea rqxvted at the 1971 APA Meeting in Washii^itoii, D.C.The mseaxdb piuject has berai sq»ported by grants to &MB aotiuMr from

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