title: Vocal fry may undermine the success of young women in the labor market.
abstract: Vocal fry is speech that is low pitched and creaky sounding, and is increasingly common among young American females. Some argue that vocal fry enhances speaker labor market perceptions while others argue that vocal fry is perceived negatively and can damage job prospects. In a large national sample of American adults we find that vocal fry is interpreted negatively. Relative to a normal speaking voice, young adult female voices exhibiting vocal fry are perceived as less competent, less educated, less trustworthy, less attractive, and less hirable. The negative perceptions of vocal fry are stronger for female voices relative to male voices. These results suggest that young American females should avoid using vocal fry speech in order to maximize labor market opportunities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Rindy C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America; Department of Political Science, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, United States of America.
authors.forename: Casey A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Klofstad
authors.affiliation: Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Mayew
authors.affiliation: Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Mohan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Venkatachalam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004651:Employment / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014481:United States; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014833:Voice Quality / Q000502:physiology*