Judging personality and appearance from voice disorders

This study examined the effect of voice disorders on judgments of personality and appearance. One-hundred-and-five college students evaluated the personality and appearance characteristics of 12 speakers, four with normal voice quality, four with harsh-breathy voice quality, and four with hypernasal voice quality. A semantic differential procedure was employed to obtain ratings on 12 bipolar adjectives. Results indicate a significant difference between the normal and disordered voices. Voice disorders elicit more negative responses on judgments of personality and appearance of the speaker. These findings indicate that voice disorders warrant correction.