One of the more entertaining aspects of listening to talk radio, particularly sports talk is seeing how the hosts deal with the idiot callers, and boy, do they come in droves. Patron saint of the Never Daunted Radio Network, Dan Dakich of ESPN 1070 the Fan in Indianapolis went so far as to call himself a “voicist”, meaning that he could tell just by hearing a caller’s voice whether or the call would be worth a damn. Well, according to a report featured on NPR, there’s some science to back up Dakich’s reasoning. The study, conducted in a “mass online rating experiment”, 320 participants rated 64 sub-second vocal utterances of the word ‘hello’ on one of 10 personality traits.
Some voices are just too much to take.
What he found was that the participants largely agreed on which voice matched which personality trait. According to Phil McAleer, a psychologist at the University of Glasgow, Scotland: “From the first word you hear a person speak, you start to form this impression of the person’s personality.” So much like Dakich, it’s apparently simple enough to judge people just by the sound of their voice. Now speaking for myself, I’d tend to agree. Part of this comes from just how we regard others when they talk. I’ve been guilty of dismissing someone as soon as I hear an all too familiar slow country drawl, or someone with another affectation. Now as someone who broadcasts, I do wonder what people think when they hear my voice. Does it match my personality? Do I sound smarter? Dumber? Does my voice make my ass sound fat? Communication is pretty essential to survival, largely because sometimes, the way someone sounds can let you know if you’re dealing with a dumbass, or someone who can actually form enough of an opinion to help you out when you really need it. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. Sometimes, a voice can be deceiving, especially when you really don’t want it to be. I’m reminded of the late Tim Wilson’s “I Married a Woman who Talked Like Jerry Reed.” While we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, sometimes you just can’t help but to judge a person by the sound of their voice.