Very fashionable in the 19th century, physiognomy has now lost credibility: now called “pseudoscience”, this method (notably developed by an Italian criminologist) maintained that it was enough to observe a person’s physical appearance (and above all: their face) to get a glimpse of their personality…
A study (much more serious!) carried out by the University of Göttingen (in Germany) was interested in the links which exist between the personality of an individual and the tone of his voice. For this, the German researchers analyzed data from 2,000 volunteers from 4 countries: the participants had to fill out a questionnaire about their personality, but also provide a recording of their voice for computer analysis.
Extroverted people have a deeper voice than others
Result ? Scientists have observed that people with a rather deep voice were, on average, more extroverted than others. These people also had relatively “dominant” personality traits and were more likely to show “sexual curiosity” (read: to cheat on their partner…). Conclusions which, according to scientists, would be valid for both men and women.
“Our work suggests that some people express certain aspects of their personality through their voice“analyzes Dr. Julia Stern, the main author of this study. On the other hand, no link between the tone of voice and other parameters (such as pessimism, open-mindedness, concentration, etc.) could be established.
These works have been published in the Journal of Research in Personality.
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