20 August 2020United States

It’s in the Tone: The Acoustics of Social Judgments and Linguistic Profiling – Virtual Presentation

When you hear someone without seeing them, what types of judgments can you make based solely on their voice? Listeners are surprisingly adept at making judgments about gender, age, and race based on short speech samples, and they make these assumptions based on the voice itself rather than just content. These facts have implications for how marginalized groups and people experience the world, especially in institutions such as education and the criminal justice system.

The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) continues its series of virtual talks featuring acoustical experts as part of the International Year of Sound celebration.

For this third presentation in the series, Nicole Holliday, an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, will examine how our voices convey meaning in their tone and what listeners perceive. Specifically, her virtual talk on Aug. 20 will reflect on what language can tell us about identity and inequality.

The talk will run from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM EST.

*registration link will be posted*