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 n eutral) as portrayed by 3 female and 3 male actors reading 2 stories w ith 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 tha n male actors for portrayals of happiness. Partial support for the gen eral hypothesis that there is behavioral evidence of stereotypic gende r differences for vocal affect was obtained.