Hi there! Have you ever wondered why your voice sounds so different when you hear it in a recording? It might seem higher-pitched or just not what you expected. Let’s dive into why this happens and explore some cool science behind it!
When we listen to sounds around us, they travel in waves. These sound waves enter our ears, causing our eardrums to vibrate. These vibrations move through the inner ear, reaching a part called the cochlea. The cochlea then sends signals to our brain, which interprets them as sound.
When we speak, there’s more happening than just sound waves entering our ears. Our vocal cords and the bones in our head also vibrate. This is known as bone-conducted sound, or as I like to call it, “jiggly bones.” These vibrations travel directly to the cochlea from inside our body, making our voice sound deeper to us than it actually is.
When you listen to a recording of your voice, you’re only hearing the sound waves that traveled through the air, not the bone-conducted sound. This is why your recorded voice sounds higher-pitched and different from what you’re used to hearing.
There’s a psychological reason why we prefer the voice we hear in our heads. It’s called the mere exposure effect. This effect means we tend to like things more when we’re familiar with them. A scientist named Robert Zajonc found that people liked things better the more they saw or heard them, like made-up words or photos.
Since we’re used to hearing our voice with the deeper bone-conducted sound, we prefer it. That’s why the voice on a recording might not be our favorite.
This is a bit like why some people don’t like photos of themselves. We’re used to seeing our reflection in the mirror, which is a reversed image. When we see a photo, it looks different, and we might not like it as much at first.
So, next time you hear your voice in a recording, remember it’s just a different version of what you’re used to. And who knows, you might grow to appreciate it!
Thanks for exploring this fun topic with me! If you have more questions, feel free to ask. See you next time!
Try creating your own sound waves using a simple experiment. Fill a bowl with water and gently tap the surface with a spoon. Observe the ripples and think about how sound waves travel through the air in a similar way. Discuss with your classmates how these waves might change when they hit different surfaces.
Record your voice using a smartphone or a recording device. Then, listen to the recording and compare it to how you hear your voice when you speak. Write down your observations and share them with the class. Discuss why you think your recorded voice sounds different.
Use a tuning fork to explore bone conduction. Strike the tuning fork and gently place it against your head, near your ear. Notice how the sound travels through your bones. Discuss with your classmates how this relates to hearing your own voice.
Look at your reflection in a mirror and then take a selfie. Compare the two images and discuss how they differ. Relate this to how hearing your voice in a recording is different from hearing it in your head.
Think about the mere exposure effect and how it influences your preferences. Discuss with your classmates other examples where familiarity affects your likes and dislikes, such as songs, foods, or activities. Reflect on how this might apply to your voice.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hi, I’m Craig, and this is Mental Floss on YouTube. Today, I’m going to answer Christina Bailey’s big question: Why does our voice sound different when we hear an audio or video recording of it? When you hear a recording of your voice, it probably sounds higher-pitched than the voice you hear when you talk. I’m going to explain why that is, and later, when I watch this, it’s going to sound weird to me. Let’s get started!
As you know from previous episodes, sound comes into our ears in the form of waves. The outer ear captures those waves and sends them into the ear canal. The waves cause the eardrum to vibrate, and these vibrations make their way through the inner ear, including the cochlea, which is the auditory portion of the inner ear. The vibrations then become signals that the auditory nerve in the brain can interpret.
However, when we hear our own voices while talking, there’s a lot more going on than just vibrations in our ears. There are also vibrations in our vocal cords and bones that affect how these vibrations travel. The technical term for this is bone-conducted sound, but I like to call it “jiggly bones.” This sound travels to the cochlea directly from inside the body.
So, essentially, the ear processes vibrations from both inside the body and outside it, making our voices sound deeper to us than they actually are. People tend to prefer the deeper voice they’ve become accustomed to over their lives due to a phenomenon called the mere exposure effect. This effect means we favor things we are familiar with or have been exposed to repeatedly.
For instance, a scientist named Robert Zajonc conducted experiments where he exposed participants to stimuli like made-up words or yearbook photos. He found that participants liked the stimuli more as they continued to be shown them. The fact that we prefer our voices as we’ve heard them throughout our lives is another example of the mere exposure effect. When we hear our voice on a recording, it sounds different, so we tend to like it less.
This is similar to why some people don’t like looking at pictures of themselves. We become accustomed to the image we see in the mirror every day, but that’s not what we really look like; it’s a mirror image, which is reversed. I see videos of myself all the time and have grown to appreciate them.
Thanks for watching Mental Floss on YouTube, which is made with the help of all these familiar faces. If you have a big question of your own that you’d like answered, leave it below in the comments. See you next week!
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Let me know if you need any further modifications!
Voice – The sound produced by humans when speaking or singing, which is created by the vibration of the vocal cords. – The scientist used a computer to analyze the voice patterns of different people to understand how they produce sound.
Sound – A type of energy that travels through the air (or other mediums) as waves and can be heard when it reaches a person’s or animal’s ear. – In science class, we learned how sound travels faster through water than through air.
Waves – Disturbances that transfer energy from one place to another, often seen in the context of sound or light. – The teacher explained how sound waves move through the air to reach our ears.
Vibrations – Rapid back-and-forth movements that create sound waves in the air. – When the guitar string was plucked, its vibrations produced a musical note.
Cochlea – A spiral-shaped, fluid-filled structure in the inner ear that plays a key role in hearing by converting sound waves into nerve signals. – The cochlea is essential for hearing because it transforms sound vibrations into signals that the brain can understand.
Recordings – Stored audio or video data that can be played back to hear or see the original sound or image. – The students listened to recordings of different animal sounds to learn how they communicate.
Psychology – The scientific study of the mind and behavior, exploring how people think, feel, and act. – In psychology class, we discussed how different experiences can shape a person’s behavior.
Exposure – The condition of being subjected to something, such as a stimulus or environment, which can influence behavior or development. – Prolonged exposure to loud noises can damage hearing over time.
Prefer – To like one thing or option more than another. – Many students prefer hands-on experiments because they make learning science more engaging.
Deeper – Extending far down from the top or surface, often used metaphorically to describe a more thorough understanding or exploration. – The class took a deeper look into the causes of climate change to understand its impact on the environment.
