When talking to someone over the phone, you can't perceive any visual clues about that person, yet we often make assumptions based on their voice relating to things like dominance and trust.

Scientists affiliated with the German University of Göttingen decided to put this phenomenon to the test and determine whether we can really perceive something about a person's personality solely based on their voice.

A persons’ voice is the only thing to go by when conversing over the phone - Image Credit: wavebreakmedia via Shutterstock / HDR tune by Universal-Sci

The research team was able to get 2000 people to partake in their study. Participants were asked to provide information about their character via a set of questions. On top of that, they were asked to supply the science team with audio records of their voice.

Using specialized software, the team accurately assessed the pitch of these voice recordings. This has been the first time a study of this type has used an objective digital measure of voice pitch instead of subjective ratings of how -deep- or -high- a voice sounds.

After successfully retrieving the desired data from the software, the scientists compared it with the data they collected from their questionnaire, which included assessments of attitude, dominance, openness to experience, agreeability, neuroticism, etc.

The scientists found that there is indeed a link to be made between someone's voice and their character traits. It turns out that individuals with a lower-pitched voice were more extroverted, dominant but also scored higher in sociosexuality (meaning that, on average, they were more interested in intercourse outside a relationship).

Nevertheless, the link between voice pitch and other character traits (such as neuroticism and agreeableness) turned out to be less evident. It may be that those characteristics are not revealed in the pitch of someone's voice. An interesting side note is that the results showed no distinction separating men and women, meaning that these findings are universal.

Apparently there is no distinction that separates men and women when it comes to the findings of this study - Image Credit: LightField Studios via Shutterstock / HDR tune by Universal-Sci

Dr. Julia Stern, one of the authors of the paper, stated in a press release that a persons' voice could have a profound and immediate impact on us. Without any visible indication of the person we are talking to, we can quickly assess if we're conversing with an older adult or a young person, for example. On top of that, we can quickly discern if a person is interested in what you are saying, if they are sad or happy, etc.

Stern and her team wanted to find out if these assumptions have any merit. These findings show that we can indeed derive some aspects of someone's character traits solely by hearing their voice. The largest-ever number of test subjects for this type of study helps to create a foundation of reliability for these findings.

The research has been released in the Journal of Research in Personality. If you are interested in finding out more details about the way the study was set up, be sure to check it out. A link is listed below.

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