13 bizarre things you never knew about your own voice

Your larynx is much more than just a noise-making organ. Check out these fun facts about the voice box and what your tone gives away about you.

If you talk or sing for a living, you may want to avoid chatting on flights as much as possible. Dr Gregory Postma, ENT physician, says air on planes has about 8 to 12 percent humidity, which is about as dry as the Simpson desert. Air with very little moisture is tough on the vocal cords, so keeping talking to a minimum could help protect your voice.

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Would your job be significantly harder or impossible to do if you lost your voice? Then you might be considered a professional voice user. According to a study by Dr Robert T. Sataloff, professor and chair of otolaryngology at Drexel University, a professional voice user is someone whose ability to earn a living is impacted negatively by the loss of vocal quality and endurance. Most people think this label is only for singers, actors and broadcast personalities, but it also extends to teachers, receptionists, telemarketers, salespeople and other professions.

You may be tempted to whisper to conserve your voice if you have laryngitis or a sore throat, but that could actually damage your pipes even more. “We advise people not to whisper as whispering is, in fact, harder on your voice than speaking in a normal tone,” said Dr Postma. It’s better to use your voice gently and quietly versus forcing your vocal cords to squeeze together tightly through whispering.

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Singing to your bun in the oven may not be falling on deaf ears. At 25 weeks of development, your baby can already recognise and respond to your voice, says Forrest Talley, PhD, a clinical psychologist. Once they’re born, babies also show a clear preference and recognition for their mother’s voice over other female voices that they hear.

When you talk, energy bounces around in your mouth, throat and through your head, directly to the inner portion of your ear, Aaron Johnson, PhD, a speech and language pathologist told Reader’s Digest. Other people can’t sense the vibrations in your mouth, so you hear your own voice differently than they do. When you hear your voice in a recording, you sound brighter or higher than what you’re used to, which you may find irritating.

Learn more about why you hate the sound of your own voice.

“You had me at hello” might not seem like a crazy phrase considering evidence shows that the sound of a person’s voice can give away important information about them. According to multiple studies, listeners hearing voice samples can guess personality traits, socioeconomic status, and even attributes like height, age and weight of the speaker. In fact, someone hearing your voice can potentially guess your physical features as accurately as someone examining a photo of you.

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Have you ever talked to someone with your headphones on and realised you were shouting at them by accident? Well, it’s not entirely your fault. Jason Galster, PhD, Starkey Hearing Technologies Senior Manager of Audiology Research, says everyone naturally raises their voice in loud environments. This is called the Lombard effect – a speaker’s involuntary increase or change in voice, pitch, rate and duration of syllables when in loud environments.

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You’ve probably heard that men lower their voices when they’re flirting with a woman, but did you know that women instinctively do the same? A study found that “both sexes used a lower-pitched voice and showed a higher level of physiological arousal when speaking to the more attractive, opposite-sex target.” The next time you’re talking to someone you find good-looking, listen carefully to see if their pitch lowers, even slightly – it might signal that they’re into you!

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You don’t have to say much for people to judge you, but what about just saying one single word? It turns out, people may gauge your trustworthiness and dominance from a simple greeting. About 500 listeners who were part of a University of Glasgow study judged the trustworthiness of voices only saying “hello.” Researchers found that voices that “have personality” or variations are perceived as more trustworthy than those that remained mostly flat.

Discocer 8 ways to use body language to build trust.