Have you ever unintentionally copied someone’s accent? It’s not uncommon… and actually, might even be a natural effect of evolution…
[update (vocab fail on my part): “interlocutor” means “a person who takes part in a dialogue or conversation.”]
I get a bit geeky and look into a new (to me) concept I bumbled on in the research literature: Communication Accommodation Theory — which sheds some light on why we change how we use our voice when we’re around different people.
I talk about:
* How we could always tell who my sister had been speaking to as a child
* Why we change how we use our voice without meaning to
* How apes also change their voices to fit in
* The implications for neurodivergent people and others who struggle to adapt
* And I actually pull some quotes from the literature!
Interested in voice? Add yourself to the Voice Lab Online waitlist: https://sendfox.com/alexowenhill
00:00 Why some people copy accents by mistake
01:02 The research we’re actually talking about
02:15 What “accommodation” really is
03:40 How speakers shift (often unconsciously)
05:05 How listeners interpret it
06:22 When accent-matching goes wrong
07:48 The neurodivergent masking angle
09:10 Final thoughts
The paper we’re talking about is:
Bernhold, Quinten S., and Howard Giles. “Vocal accommodation and mimicry.” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 44.1 (2020): 41-62.
#voice #accents #neurodivergent #masking #adhd #autism #communication #authenticity #voicecoach #vocalresearch
