The Frequency Code: the perception of 'dominance/submissiveness' dimension in female voices

Abstract

According to the Frequency Code proposed by Ohala, there is a close relationship among the physical size of many animals (large vs. small), the vocal pitch height of their vocalizations (low vs. high sounds) and their degree of dominance/submissiveness. Also in humans, lowpitch voices are generally associated with high level of dominance, while high-pitched voices normally convey a meaning of submission and politeness. This research aims to explore the possible relationship between female voice pitch and its paralinguistic interpretation. To this purpose, we conducted an auditory test by asking to a group of Italian listeners to evaluate the voices in terms of five semantic scales reproduced on a Visual Analogue Scale. The findings show a confusing trend: low-pitch voices increased ratings of dominance and self-confidence than high-pitched ones; nevertheless, the transmission of these paralinguistic meanings is affected by other phonetic aspects, such as formant structure, speech rate and intensity.