Vocal characteristics of older adults and stereotyping

Two studies extended the study of the nonverbal correlates of age stereotyp es. In Study 1, 40 young listeners assessed the age of 30 elderly speakers from three age groups: 60-69, 70-79, 80 and over. As expected, perceived ag e increased linearly with age group, although greater variability was found in judgments of male than of female speakers. For male speakers, mean voca l volume (intensity) and standard deviations in vocal volume were positivel y correlated with chronological and perceived age. For female speakers, mea n pitch, standard deviations in pitch, and vocal jitter were positively cor related with chronological and perceived age. In Study 2, 40 young listener s selected trait sets corresponding to 3 positive and 3 negative elderly st ereotypes to describe 6 young-old and 6 old-old speakers. As predicted, lis teners associated the old-old voices of females (but not males) with fewer positive stereotypes than the young-old female voices. In addition, young-o ld male voices were associated with significantly fewer positive stereotype s than young-old female voices. Finally, male participants chose fewer posi tive stereotypes for young-old male voices than did female participants. Th ese results provide information on the ways in which vocal characteristics may serve to activate stereotypes in interaction.