The sound of one’s own voice can affect a person’s emotional state, according to an international team of researchers after a series of experiments.
During the experiment, the volunteers read stories aloud while they heard their own voice in the headphones. The sound of the voice was modified by a computer: barely noticeable notes of various emotions were “mixed” into it – joy, sadness or fear.
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These manipulations were performed using digital sound processing algorithms that simulated the acoustic component of emotional intonations. For example, in order to make the voice sound more “happy”, the algorithm changed the pitch, its dynamic range and spectral composition, due to which the voice became more “positive”, sounded more confident and energetic. For the first time, such manipulations were carried out in real time – in previous similar experiments, audio recordings were used for this.
The participants in the experiment did not realize that their voices were changing. However, at the same time, their emotional state changed – they themselves began to experience those emotions that were “added” by the computer. The researchers concluded that we do not always have complete control over the sound of our own voice, and often when we hear it, it helps us better understand how we feel.
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“We know very little about the mechanisms that govern the emotional intonations of the voice. Research shows that people often try to manage and control their emotions – for example, by holding back their expression or trying to correct them. We wanted to find out how consciously people express their emotions,” says study lead author Jean-Julien Aucouturier of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
“In psychology, there has long been a debate about how the sensation and expression of emotions correlate. For the first time, we have demonstrated the presence of feedback in the process of sound expression of emotions, ”continues one of the authors of the study, Petter Jonasson from Lund University (Sweden).
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Another participant in the research project, Katsumi Watanabe, who works at Waseda University and the University of Tokyo (Japan), believes that such technology can be used for therapeutic purposes, say, to treat mood disorders such as depression. For example, a patient can talk about some emotionally charged events in his life and listen to his own voice, modified with the help of computer algorithms, which theoretically can improve his condition and mood.
Подробнее см. J. Aucouturier et al. «Covert digital manipulation of vocal emotion alter speakers’ emotional states in a congruent direction», PNAS, January 2016.