Reconsidering Listener Evaluations of Creaky Voice

In U.S. English, nonpathological creaky voice (vocal fry) is a common voice quality that contributes meaningful linguistic information. However, several studies have found that speakers who use creaky voice, particularly young women, are rated as sounding less hirable and less pleasant. The current study reexamines these findings by using utterances with spontaneously produced creaky voice in one of its most common locations (phrase-final position). In addition, five different listener groups varying in age and gender (younger women, younger men, younger nonbinary listeners, older women, older men) were recruited to explore which listeners exhibit more negative perceptions of creaky voice. We selected spontaneously produced sentences from 10 speakers such that half had creak on the final word and half did not. A total of 104 listeners rated the sentences on a hirability scale and a pleasantness scale. Then, they completed implicit and explicit association tasks about gender and career roles. Contrary to previous research, listeners did not rate sentences with phrase-final creaky voice as less hirable or less pleasant overall, although older women rated the sentences with creaky voice as sounding less pleasant than sentences without creak. Younger nonbinary listeners rated voices as sounding more hirable overall (regardless of creak status) than either younger women or younger men. Taken together, these results suggest that phrase-final creak, when produced spontaneously, is not universally perceived more negatively than fully modal productions.