Superficial auditory (dis)fluency biases higher-level social judgment.

ABSTRACT: When talking to other people, we naturally form impressions based not only on what they say but also on how they say it-e.g., how confident they sound. In modern life, however, the sounds of voices are often determined not only by intrinsic qualities (such as vocal anatomy) but also by extrinsic properties (such as videoconferencing microphone quality). Here, we show that such superficial auditory properties can have surprisingly deep consequences for higher-level social judgments. Listeners heard short narrated passages (e.g., from job application essays) and then made various judgments about the speakers. Critically, the recordings were modified to simulate different microphone qualities, while carefully equating listeners' comprehension of the words. Though the manipulations carried no

SUBMITTER: Walter-Terrill R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12002274 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature