Is vocal fry hurting women’s job prospects?
A new set of data suggests that vocal fry — or vocal creakiness — could negatively impact female job applicants. The study, published by the online journal PLOS, played samples of male and female subjects speaking in both a normal voice and with vocal fry. Participants were then surveyed as to which candidates they found to be more suitable to hire for a job.
While a preference for a normal speaking voice was nearly equally matched for both men and women — results show a preference for a normal voice 86 percent of the time for female speakers and 83 percent of the time for male speakers — those surveyed reacted more negatively to women with vocal fry than men.
Olga Khazan, who covered the topic for The Atlantic, joins Marketplace’s Mark Garrison to discuss the study and its implications for women in the workplace. Click on the audio player above to hear more.
Do you prefer a normal voice or fry voice? Click below to hear the vocal samples from the study:
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