Something We LIKE about ourselves!

In the old days, when there were tape recorders, I remember recording my voice and listening to it and saying, “That’s can’t be me! I sound so much better to myself.”

Today, we can do the same thing using our smart phones and listening to our voice mail greetings. I don’t think I sound as bad as I did with the tape recorders. But it still isn’t me.

Imagine my surprise with the unveiling of a new study, the article to be published later this month in the journal, Perception, which says we actually like our own voice when we don’t realize it is ours. For this study, 80 men and women assessed the voice attractiveness of an array of different voice recordings of people counting from 1-10. Unbeknownst to participants, researchers included three different samples of participants’ own voice recordings in the group. Researchers believe that most participants did not recognize or realize their own voices were included, yet rated their own voices as sounding more attractive than how other raters judged their voices. Participants also rated their own voices more favorably than they had rated the voices of other people.

What was the conclusion? “Given this age of heightened narcissism, this study provides further evidence that individuals seem to inflate their opinions of themselves by thinking the sound of their own voices is more attractive,” said Susan Hughes, PhD. Associate Professor of Psychology at Albright College. And the name of the article? “I Like My Voice Better: Self-Enhancement Bias in Perceptions of Voice Attractiveness.”

HUH??? What’s wrong if you like your voice? And how can you say the person is narcissistic if you do? In this world of “not good enough” and eating disorders and focusing on obesity, isn’t it nice to know we actually like something about ourselves? I say Hurray for the Voice! Long may it resonate.