The voice acoustics of the 2016 United States presidential election candidates: A cross-gender study Free

The present study investigates the acoustic voice profiles (vocal fundamental frequency and intensity) of two female (Hillary Clinton and Carly Fiorina) and two male (Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump) candidates to the 2016 United States presidential election. The criteria used for choosing the speakers were based on: (a) an online survey we conducted in 2015; (b) the prediction markets’ statistics; (c) the number of endorsements from party elites; (d) the Iowa and the New Hampshire polls; (e) the amount of money raised by the candidate; and (f) the candidates’ gender from both Democratic and Republican parties. Voice stimuli for each of these speakers were collected for three different communication contexts: a political campaign monologue; a political peers-addressed speech; and non-political interview. Results confirm and expand previous findings [JASA 136(4), 2295] showing cross-cultural and gender similarities in voice acoustics supporting the hypothesis of several ongoing cross-cultural/gender processes of integration among some innate and cultural/linguistic vocal habits to convey leadership status: leaders estimate audience’s biological and social traits, manipulate vocal ranges of F0 and SPL accordingly, while maintaining women’s and men’s particular acoustic average features of F0 and SPL significantly different. [Supported by NIH grant DC01797.]