What does your voice say about you?

More than 2000 participants filled out personality questionnaires to measure dominance, sociosexuality, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness. Photo: Paula Bange International research team led by Göttingen University investigates links between personality and vocal characteristics Everyone has at some point been charmed by the sound of a person's voice: but can we believe our ears? What can a voice really reveal about our character? Now an international research team led by the University of Göttingen has shown that people seem to express at least some aspects of their personality with their voice. The researchers discovered that a lower pitched voice is associated with individuals who are more dominant, extrovert and higher in sociosexuality (more interested in casual sex). The findings were true for women as well as for men. The results were published in the Journal of Research in Personality. The researchers analysed data from over 2,000 participants and included information from four different countries. Participants filled in questionnaires about themselves to measure personality and provided recordings of their voice so that the pitch could be measured using a computer programme.