Browsing by Author "Hughes, Susan M."
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Item People Will Know We Are in Love: Evidence of Differences Between Vocal Samples Directed Toward Lovers and Friends(Springer, 2013) Farley, Sally D; Hughes, Susan M.; LaFayette, Jack N.Research has documented the tendency for individuals to change their voices as a function of different emotional and motivational states, but little attention has been devoted to examining voice modulation in romantic relationships. The present research was conducted to determine (1) the way in which individuals alter their voices when speaking to romantic partners versus friends and (2) if independent raters perceive these differences. Independent raters (N = 80) listened to vocal clips obtained from telephone calls directed toward close same-sex friends and romantic partners. For several clips, raters were able to identify conversational partner (romantic versus friend) with greater than chance accuracy, and this accuracy was positively correlated with vocal pitch and perceived romantic interest. In addition, raters who listened to content-filtered clips judged callers less favorably when talking to their romantic partners than their friends. Results are interpreted in light of the ‘‘longing’’ but vulnerable condition of intense romantic love, and integrated into affection exchange theory and communication accommodation theory.Item Vocal and Physiological Changes in Response to the Physical Attractiveness of Conversational Partners(Springer, 2010) Hughes, Susan M.; Farley, Sally D; Rhodes, Bradley CWe examined how individuals may change their voices when speaking to attractive versus unattractive individuals, and if it were possible for others to perceive these vocal changes. In addition, we examined if any concurrent physiological effects occurred when speaking with individuals who varied in physical attractiveness. We found that both sexes used a lower-pitched voice and showed a higher level of physiological arousal when speaking to the more attractive, opposite-sex target. Furthermore, independent raters evaluated the voice samples directed toward the attractive target (versus the unattractive target) as sounding more pleasant when the two voice samples from the same person presented had a reasonably perceptually noticeable difference in pitch. These findings may have implications for the role voice plays in mate selection and attraction.