What does your voice says about you?
Monday 1st of April 2019, 7pm
Waterstones, Sauchiehall Street
Speaker: Phil McAleer
People tend to think of the world as a highly visual place, neglecting the fact that our primary means of communication is through sound; our voice. Voices have been steadily researched for the best part of a century and are now becoming the focus of much attention given the recent influx of voice-based technology. But what is in a voice? How is your voice produced? What does your voice reveal about you? And how can this information be used in our modern lives?
Mainly focussing on first impressions of people from their voice, after a brief overview of how we produce our voices, we will discuss what judgements people make about us based solely on our voice, what influence these judgements may have, and ultimately whether there is any truth in them, or is it all just based on biases and stereotypes. We will end by looking at how this information can be applied to help improve communication in a variety of settings. Worst case scenario you will find out why people don’t like the sound of their own voice!
Phil McAleer is a lecturer in the School of Psychology, University of Glasgow. He leads the Voice Lab; a group of researchers interested in what information we obtain from voices and how that can be applied in the world.