Sexual orientation in voices: Acoustic analysis and auditory perception

About Sexual orientation in voices: Acoustic analysis and auditory perception

Vocal stereotypes regarding sexual orientation are widespread and are perpetuated, for example, by representations in the media (e.g., nasalance in gay men’s speech). Acoustic analyses allow to investigate speech differences between speakers differing in sexual orientation. However, corresponding studies rarely refer to women and the evidence is inconsistent.

The first aim of the present research project is to clarify the inconsistent findings by systematically examining language-related (e.g., text topic) and situational context factors (e.g., gender of the conversation partners) and relating them to characteristics of female and male speakers (e.g., self-ascribed masculinity/femininity). Furthermore, perception studies focus on listeners' perceptions of sexual orientation and associate these with the speakers' voice characteristics. Their findings are also inconsistent. The second aim therefore is to apply an experimental approach to the auditory perception of sexual orientation. Voice morphing is introduced as a new method in this field of research, and allows to answer which acoustic parameters contribute to the classification of sexual orientation. For example, the vocal timbre of straight speakers is gradually transferred to the that of lesbian/gay speakers, while keeping other acoustic parameters constant. Subsequently, a sample of listeners rate the sexual orientation and masculinity/femininity of the generated stimuli. By combining production-related and perceptual approaches, possible discrepancies between expression (speaker) and perception (listener) of sexual orientation can be identified. In addition, auditory perception of sexual orientation is realistically conceptualized as a communicative act.

The overarching goal of this research project is to explain under which conditions stereotypical speech is used to mark sexual orientations and which voice parameters create the impression of a particular sexual orientation. This will help establish starting points for evidence-based anti-discrimination work and for speech and language therapy interventions.

Publications

Kachel, S., Simpson, A. P., & Steffens, M. C. (2024). Speakers’ vocal expression of sexual orientation depends on experimenter gender. Speech Communication, 156, 103023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2023.103023External link

Kachel, S., Nussbaum, C., & Pöhlmann, M. (2023). Queer events, relationships, and sports: Does topic influence speakers’ acoustic expression of sexual orientation? INTERSPEECH 2023, 4269–4273. https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2023-2087External link

Kachel, S., Steffens, M. C., Preuß, S., & Simpson, A. P. (2020). Gender (conformity) matters: Cross-dimensional and cross-modal associations in sexual orientation perception. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 39(1), 40–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X19883902External link

Kachel, S., Radtke, A., Skuk, V. G., Zäske, R., Simpson, A. P., & Steffens, M. C. (2018). Investigating the common set of acoustic parameters in sexual orientation groups: A voice averaging approach. PLoS ONE, 13(12): e0208686. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208686External link

Kachel, S., Simpson, A. P., & Steffens, M. C. (2018). “Do I sound straight?”: Acoustic correlates of actual and perceived sexual orientation and masculinity/femininity in men’s speech. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(7), 1560–1578. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0125External link

Kachel, S., Simpson, A. P., & Steffens, M. C. (2017). Acoustic correlates of sexual orientation and gender-role self-concept in women's speech. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 141(6), 4793–2809. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4988684External link