Can feelings and intentions be heard?
We can tell how the speaker is feeling from their voice and intonation. This can even go so far that we can sense the speaker's nervousness ourselves.
At a Glance
- Regardless of what is said, you can hear the true intentions behind it
- The voice determines how likable someone is and how competent they’re perceived to be
- Even babies communicate through the intonation of their sounds
Anyone who enjoys listening to audio content is familiar with those voices that captivate us. Timbre and intonation determine whether we enjoy listening to a speaker. Sound and intonation can relax or unsettle us, regardless of what is being said. Both factors even influence how we assess a person’s competence and how likable we find a speaker. Even as infants, the familiar voice of our parents calms us. As early as seven months of age, we’re able to tell whether someone is happy or not based on their pitch. This was discovered in a study by Tobias Grossmann of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. But how is that possible?
Our sense of hearing enables us to feel empathy
Often, it’s enough for us to hear how the pitch changes as words are spoken and how the speaker breathes. That’s all it takes for us to decide whether we find the other person likable. This is because, as listeners, we unconsciously and internally mimic the speaker. This can go so far that we feel the speaker’s nervousness simply by hearing their voice. We might even find ourselves clearing our throats because we’ve listened too long to someone suppressing their throat-clearing while speaking.
But pleasant feelings can also be triggered by the voice alone. For example, calm breathing combined with a soft and melodic voice can soothe us. This is made possible by the mirror neurons in our brain. Through details about the other person that we usually perceive unconsciously, these neurons allow us to empathize with what they’re experiencing.
Our sense of hearing is a lie detector
This is how we can also hear what the person we’re talking to is thinking. Because if we listen closely, we can recognize their intentions through their voice. We just have to pay attention to the details. Our ears pick up on subtle nuances and relay them to the limbic system. This is the part of our brain that ensures environmental stimuli trigger emotions within us. Most people are familiar with this effect.
For example, when a friend tells you they’re doing fine, but you sense deep down that something is weighing on them. Perhaps it was your ear that revealed this to you. After all, our emotional state influences our vocal muscles. Sadness, for example, causes them to slacken. As a result, the vocal cords react more slowly and vibrate more gently. As a result, our voice sounds deeper, but also weaker and less clear. If we’re bored or lost in thought, our listeners can tell because we suddenly lack emphasis, everything sounds monotonous, and our breathing is shallow.
Stress also has a major impact on our voice. It becomes very thin and sounds as if the throat is constricted. The fundamental pitch plays a secondary role here. What matters more is the overall picture of intonation and the speaker’s sincerity. This is because our brain doesn’t like it when what is said and the “message” conveyed by the sound of the voice don’t match.
But it’s not impossible to fully master one’s voice. Very good actors are perfectly capable of conveying emotions and moods appropriate to the situation in a completely believable way through the sound of their voice. It doesn’t matter where the person they’re speaking to is from or what language they speak. That’s because these nuances and frequencies—which are so interesting to our limbic system—sound the same all over the world.
These Are the Frequencies Humans Can Hear
The range of frequencies that humans can hear depends on their age. On average, young people can hear a range from 16 to 20,000 hertz—including high and low sounds that older people can no longer perceive. Older people usually have difficulty hearing—or cannot hear at all—frequencies below 5,000 hertz. The most common reason for this is age-related hearing loss.
By comparison, dogs can hear frequencies ranging from 15 to 50,000 hertz. This means they hear sounds that we cannot perceive and perceive all sounds as significantly louder.
Babies communicate through the intonation of their voices
The better we know a person, the easier it is for our brain to recognize and process the subtle nuances. That’s because we then have better points of reference. To people outside the household, a baby’s cries often sound the same. But parents can very quickly pick up on the frequencies and correctly interpret the different nuances in pitch. This is because infants use their voices differently depending on whether they need affection, something to eat, or a fresh diaper.
For our limbic system to perform this remarkable feat, it needs sufficient information, which it receives through our sense of hearing. And for our sense of hearing to be able to provide this information, it must also be able to detect the frequencies we recognize as subtle variations. This requires an intact sense of hearing. If you’ve recently felt that it’s becoming harder for you to gauge people’s intentions, it could very well be due to hearing loss. In that case, pay attention to whether it’s also taking more effort to follow conversations. After all, hearing loss often goes undetected for quite some time. That’s why we recommend getting your hearing checked regularly.
Why not talk to a hearing care professional or an ENT doctor? The sooner hearing loss is detected, the better you’ll be able to read between the lines of spoken words and accurately assess the person you’re talking to.
We've summarized how you can use your voice effectively in our article: "The Power of the Voice."
