Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Faking It: The production, perception, and function of social voice modulation

Objective

The human voice is a social tool. Non-linguistic voice cues can influence judgements of attractiveness, formidability, trustworthiness, intelligence, and general likeability, with meaningfully differential social outcomes depending on whether ones voice is credited, unduly or not, with positive or negative attributes. Yet, despite its apparent societal implications and the known capacity for vocal control, studies of human voice perception have focused on static rather than dynamic speech. The proposed project will explore the vastly understudied niche of human voice modulation. The Research Objectives of the project are to: (1) Provide the first experimental evidence of voice modulation in four novel social contexts (political debate, commercial ad, public lecture, and first date); (2) Describe the structure and production mechanisms of modulated speech using new technology developed through a secondment; (3) Identify individual and environmental factors that affect the use and nature of modulated speech; (4) Test the extent to which voice modulation effectively influences social attributions and decisions. The project will be the first to examine voice modulation across cultures, addressing a serious need for comparative research in psychology, and facilitating international collaboration. The research objectives will be achieved through a unique combination of lab and field voice recordings, spectrotemporal speech analysis, questionnaire data, cross-cultural and cross-linguistic playback experiments, and sophisticated statistical modelling. This original line of research will provide ample insight into how the voice affects human behaviour, ultimately helping to uncover the functions and origins of nonverbal communication, but also educating lay and scientific communities about social stereotyping and its socioeconomic impact. Importantly, the Fellowship will put me in an excellent position to secure a research station in one of the top European universities.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2014

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 183 454,80
Address
SUSSEX HOUSE FALMER
BN1 9RH Brighton
United Kingdom

See on map

Region
South East (England) Surrey, East and West Sussex Brighton and Hove
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 183 454,80
My booklet 0 0