Gender stereotypes in the expression and perception of vocal affect

This study examined the perception and expression of vocal affect for behavioral evidence of gender stereotypes. Subjects were 97% Caucasian and were asked to either identify or rate the effectiveness of vocal affect portrayals for 5 emotions (fear, anger, happiness, sadness, and neutral) as portrayed by 3 female and 3 male actors reading 2 stories with nonemotional word content. The results revealed that female judges identified fear, happiness, and sadness better than males. Male actors' portrayals were identified better than female actors' portrayals of anger and fear. Female actors received higher identification rates than male actors for portrayals of happiness. Partial support for the general hypothesis that there is behavioral evidence of stereotypic gender differences for vocal affect was obtained.A previous version of this article was presented at the 65th annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago, IL, during April 1993.