Deeper the Voice, Lesser the Chances For Employment: Study

Husky voiced women are less likely to get a job even after clearing interviews, finds a study.

Apart from a good resume, body language cues like a firm handshake, confident smile and poise that mirrors the personality are screened in a potential employee by recruiters while hiring. However, discrimination based on an applicant's age, race, experience, disability and gender also influence hiring decisions and is common in many facets of employment. Researchers from the University of Miami found a deep and croaky voice can be disadvantageous for female job seekers. They suggest a husky voice, also known as 'vocal fry', is  not  preferred in the job market that typecasts women as less competent, less attractive, less educated and less reliable.

For the study, experts recorded voices of seven female participants aged between 19 and 27 and seven men of ages 20 and 30 while speaking the phrase, " Thank you for considering me for this opportunity". These participants were instructed to say out the phrase in their normal voices and modulated croaky voice. The trial involved another group of 800 participants who were made to hear the recorded voice clippings and judge the competency, job skills and trustworthiness based on depth of speakers' voices.  

Almost 80 percent of the time, these participants related normal voices of females to high levels of education, attractiveness, competence and trustworthiness. This strongly indicates deeper the voice, thinner the chances of securing an employment despite being qualified and skilful.

"Our results show that the vocal fry fad is a hindrance to young women who are trying to find work. Young women would be best advised to avoid using vocal fry when trying to secure employment," said Casey A. Klofstad, study co-author from the University of Miami in a news release.

Human beings are accustomed to normal voices and find them more attractive. But, deep sounding voices are treated unique and peculiar especially in women, where such voices are mostly seen more negatively, the authors explained. Moreover, women naturally have a sharp and shrill voice, which after modulating to a lower pitch can sound very abnormal.

"Previous studies show that when women try to lower the pitch of their voice they are perceived as less attractive," Klofstad said. "You could view the results we found as an extension of this to an economic context, whereby deliberate lowering of voice pitch in a sex-atypical manner by women through vocal fry results in negative perceptions by potential employers."

More information is available in online in the journal PLoS ONE.