Hearing the Voice
Research and Insights
The science behind the voice - the VERA Method is built on research from the fields of voice, psychology, communication and behavioral science, alongside many years of hands-on experience. So what does research teach us about the impact of voice on perception, leadership and communication?
On the Low-Pitch Effect and Leadership
A well-known study by the University of Miami and Duke (2013) examined 792 CEOs of major companies. It found that CEOs with deeper voices (low frequency) managed larger companies, earned more money and held their positions longer.
Why does this happen?
Evolutionarily, a deep voice is associated with a larger body and higher testosterone levels. In our subconscious, we still translate "deep voice" into "dominance and confidence."
What do you learn at VERA?
During the workshop we learn how to use chest resonance to effectively "lower" the perceived pitch without straining the throat.
On Recognizing Emotions by Voice
Studies on emotion recognition in speech show that people are able to distinguish emotions even without seeing the face, using cues such as pitch, intensity, speaking rate and other vocal qualities.
Recent reviews describe how prosody - the melody of speech - provides key cues for recognizing emotions. Joy or excitement tend to be linked to higher pitch and greater variability, while sadness tends to sound lower and slower.
Empirical research also found that recognizing emotion in voice is influenced by cultural context and by the similarity between the speaker's language and the listener's language, so accuracy is not uniform across all populations.
An important distinction
It's important to distinguish between recognizing an emotion and inferring intent. A person can sound confident or angry even if their verbal content is neutral, so the listener combines vocal cues with prior expectations and context.
What do you learn at VERA?
During the workshop we learn to notice and work with prosody - the melody of speech - and adapt it to the message we want to convey.
How Our Voice Affects Our Own Mood
An international study examined how the tone of a person's voice affects their own mood.
Participants were asked to listen to recordings of their own voice, which had been manipulated to sound happier, sadder or more fearful. The results showed that when they listened to the happy version of their voice, their mood improved; when they heard the sad version, their mood declined, and the fearful version increased feelings of tension. In other words, not only does emotion affect the voice - the voice also affects the emotion.
What do you learn at VERA?
During training and workshops we learn conscious work with the voice, creating positive emotional feedback that strengthens a sense of joy, confidence and connection.
Voice Is More Than Words
Research supports what the VERA Method teaches in practice - our voice affects how people perceive us, how they feel around us, and what actions they take as a result of our communication. When we learn to listen to voice - our own and others' - we gain access to a whole layer of information that words alone cannot convey.