How
one man was viewed as authoritarian, then benevolent
Acoustical Society of America (ASA) in Science Daily
When a right-wing Italian politician named Umberto Bossi
suffered a severe stroke in 2004, his speech became permanently impaired.
Strangely, this change impacted Bossi's perception among his party's followers
-- from appearing authoritarian to benevolent.
Now researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles
think they know why. Probing the vocal presence of charisma across cultural
divides, the scientists found speakers with a wide range of frequency variation
in their voices were more likely to be perceived as dominant. They also found
that speakers with a low fundamental rate of vocal fold vibration, called
fundamental frequency or F0, are perceived as more dominant than speakers with
a high fundamental frequency.
Charismatic voices are made up of two fundamental components,
said Rosario Signorello: one biological and one based on language and culture.
Signorello is a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA's Bureau of Glottal Affairs who
will be speaking on Thursday about his current research at the 168th Meeting of
the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), which will be held October 27-31, 2014,
at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown Hotel.
"You get rid of the words and try to keep the acoustic
parameters," Signorello said. "You keep the F0 frequency, the
intensity and the duration, with no alteration to the other spectral and
acoustic parameters."
The F0, or fundamental frequency, is the rate of
vocal fold vibration as measured in Hertz. These parameters can then be
individually modified to gauge, which has the largest impact on a listener's
willingness to agree with a speaker or charismatic leader.
Signorello became interested in the role of voice quality in
charismatic speech while working on his thesis. To better understand the impact
of vocal frequencies on charismatic perception, he turned his eyes on the case
of Umberto Bossi.
"I collected speeches of him before and after the
stroke," Signorello said, "and I discovered that before the accident,
he was perceived as an authoritarian leader, because his voice was
characterized by low average of fundamental frequency, normal modulation of the
pitch contour, a wide pitch range, a lot of perturbation in voice and a lot of
creakiness and harshness." Signorello believes that the stroke caused a
hemiparesis, or asymmetrical muscle weakness, of Bossi's vocal fold -- thus
impacting his speech capabilities.
"The stroke caused him to have a very flat pitch contour,
so even if he had the harshness, even if he had the creakiness -- his pitch
contour was very flat." Pitch contour is the entire range of modulation of
the fundamental frequency during a given window. "I submitted his voice to
the listeners and he was perceived as a benevolent and competent leader, which
is very different from the authoritarian perception. In that case, the pitch
contour played a very important role."
Signorello's current research involves a cross-cultural
comparison of charismatic voice perception in Italian, French and Portuguese
politicians -- Luigi de Magistris, François Hollande and Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva, respectively. By analyzing speeches from these politicians through
delexicalization and native-speaker assessment, Signorello asserts that a
listener's perception of a speaker as dominant and threatening can be
attributed to their use of an average low F0 voice and wide pitch range.
Conversely, their use of an average higher F0 and narrow pitch range conveys
sincere and reassuring leadership. While these perceptions have been exhibited
as existing cross-culturally, however, a listener's preference for a leadership
type remains also dictated by specific cultural norms.
"The Italians seem to need a low pitched voice, and the
French a high pitched one, because of cultural reasons," Signorello said.
"The Italians seem to want a more dominant leader, and the French a more
competent leader."
Future research for Signorello and his colleagues involves
studying the voice of leadership in non-human primates.
"What we want to do is understand how the use of the F0
helps the nonhuman primate individuals to emerge and be recognized by the group
and understand how these individuals use their voice behavior to create
different patterns and convey leadership," Signorello said.
"The hypothesis is that the biological function of
charismatic voice is also cross-species."
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Acoustical Society of America (ASA). Note:
Materials may be edited for content and length.
Cite This Page:
Acoustical Society of America (ASA). "The science of
charismatic voices: How one man was viewed as authoritarian, then
benevolent." Science Daily,
29 October 2014.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141029203947.htm>.