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Updated: Nov 4, 2025

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Impact of Emotional Prosodies on Voice Recognition and Perception
Published on: August 9, 2024
Voice-hearers' beliefs about the causes of their voices
Eva Tolmeijer1, Amy Hardy2, Alyssa Jongeneel1
1Department of Clinical Psychology, VU University and Amsterdam Public Health Research, van der Boechorststraat 7, 1081 BT Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, Zoutkeetsingel 40, 2512 HN The Hague, the Netherlands.
Abstract:
Despite empirical evidence for multifactorial causes of voice-hearing, people's own beliefs about what caused their voices are understudied. People with distressing voices (n=125) completed measures of trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and beliefs about causality. Most participants reported trauma in the past (97%) and PTSD symptoms were prevalent. Traumatic experiences were the most commonly endorsed causal factor of voice-hearing (64%), followed by distress (62%). Beliefs about biological causes, including drug use (22%), were least endorsed. Those who experienced more traumatic events and more PTSD symptoms were more likely to endorse trauma as a causal factor of voice-hearing (R2=0.38).
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