The reasons why you're not an admirer of your voice

May 12, 2022

Have you ever recorded a video or audio recording of yourself? Have you watched it, or replayed it in the past, and considered " That'snot what my voice sounds like! You're right?" But you're not the only one. After launching a Twitter poll, we learned other people share similar opinions about the quality of their voices as well.

Graph depicting the twitter results. Over 59.1% of those polled hate the sound of their voice

As it turns out, it's fairly normal to be uncomfortable with the voices of others. unembodied voices. Why is that? It is true that there are many real motives for this feeling and they can be classified into two broad categories that comprise physiology and psychology.

In this short piece, we'll go over the psychological and physiological reasons for why you may not like the sound of your voice (or possibly think that your voice sounds different) and the steps you can do to try to change your opinion regarding it.

In this article

What makes my voice sound different when I record recordings?

This means we'll be getting more scientific within this chapter. But do not be worried that dictionaries or high school textbooks aren't required. This is the first section on physical stuff--how your body interprets sounds.

The physiology and physiology of brain.

There are no two individuals who look the same or perceive things in the same way--literally. It has been proven that people cannot observe colors the same way regardless of whether they're watching the same item. Similarly, we don't hear in the same manner, either, which is due to our body and physics.

What's interesting is that the exact same activity that occurs in the body when you listen to the voices of other people is happening when hearing your voice recorded. What is the method?

The major physiological changes that the body experience is mostly caused by the way sound waves travel through the air and also what happens when they pass through solids. If you can hear sound in the surrounding area frequency, they are transferred through air to your ears. It is here that the ears do some incredible activities.

Diagram of the inner ear taken from open source material at the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders.
Image Source: National Institute on Deafness and related Communications Disorders ( NIDCD )

The sound waves enter from the exterior that is the hearing ear via the ear canal and hit the inside of the eardrum. The eardrum then vibrates and sends out signals to the bones that are the smallest of your body, including malleus, stapes and the incus. Then, in accordance with the NIDCD several more actions happen quickly

  • The ear bones transmit signalling to the snail shell-looking cochlea that is filled with fluid. The cochlea divides into two parts from starting to the end, called the basilar membrane. It is the base of the hearing system.
  • Like the way that the water ripples on bass subwoofers, these waves of vibrations ripple fluid inside your cochlea along your basilar membrane. Hair cells of small size carry the wave upwards as well as downwards.
  • During this process, pore-like channels are opened as chemical work their way through the cells and transmit an electrical signal from the auditory nerve to the brain. The brain can then be in a position to recognize the auditory signal to be the sounds that you recognize (or don't).

All well and good for auditory signals from outside, however, what about your personal voice?

It is apparent that the way your voice is perceived by others is also influenced by the way the vocal cords move across your entire skull. According to the research in audiology through the bone's internal conduction (also also known as the Otoacoustic) the vibrating sounds are transmitted to the cochlea . Then, they create additional layer of "sound" that you could interpret.

Since low-frequency sounds move through dense material more efficiently than higher frequencies, your brain interprets the quality of the voice or internal conduction of your voice as bass-ier than you'd think without the resonances.

This is the scientific basis.

According to research from psychological studies at the time we make a decision what we think regarding a topic what we experience regarding the topic is key to our choice. As such it is true there are two main methods that our previous experiences affect our choices: newness versus a the preference to familiarity.

Novelty preference describes how we react to things that are new. The familiarity preference is how much we prefer what we're comfortable with.

Many factors come into play in determining where on the spectrum people choose to put themselves. But those who don't like the sound of their voice on recordings, are experiencing negative novelty preference and a bias toward familiarity preference.Basically, one of the main psychological reasons that those of us who don't like our recorded voice is because we're not familiar with it, and we prefer familiar things

Other variables are in play, including how the voice we use plays a part in our social identity. As we record ourselves, the conversation we have with ourselves may not correspond with what we are identifying as. When speaking to The Guardian one McGill University neuroscientist, Marc Pell said:

"When we can listen to the voice of an individual that is not connected to other aspects of our behavior and thoughts, we can go through the natural process of evaluating our own voice as it is the norm when we listen to other people's voices ... It is my belief that we evaluate our impressions of the voice to the how others judge us socially. Many people are likely to be unhappy or unsatisfied with the sound they make since the opinions they form reflect the character traits of their social lives that they wish to convey. "

Self-assessment of our voice can generate expectations about the way our voices have to sound like, compared with what our actual voices appear to sound like. The psychological comparison can be one of the reasons you believe thatyour voice is different than what you expect.

How to stop hating the sound of your voice on video

There's nothing we can do about the brain's process for hearing but we can think about what we can take to tackle the psychological problems that arise from the sound of our own voice. To understand the issue, we talked to Michael Keenan, co-founder of Peak Freelance the online community offering experts for interviews along with podcasts on the freelance lifestyle (aka several videos and recordings of voice). The company is also in the"familiarity" camp.

     "I dislike my personal voice. My impression is that I sound very whiny, and I speak too fast. I'm embarrassed by hearing my voice on tape. However, if you're planning to make a podcast or create videos via the web, you need to read the instructions . "

The concept of "getting over the issue" is simple in principle, but how do you go do you actually do?

     "After numerous exposures to my voice, I decided to realize the truth. It was unlikely that I'd ever be able to enjoy my voice. But it's not a problem for me. It gets easier to recognize your voice over time . "

Let's take a close at the word "repeated exposure."

Mere Exposure Effect

The idea of repeated exposure Michael has mentioned is yet another method to describe the " Mere Exposure Effect" or the earlier described, "familiarity preference."

The method that Michael explained is about using something that was new or untested to make it familiar. If your voice becomes more familiar it becomes easier to get used to the sound. In the process, it gets easier to watch or editing videos of yourself.

Watch yourself.

What if exposure to the same thing over time still doesn't help? Michael offers additional advice:

     "Listen to your recorded voice acting as an observer. It's not you. It's time to pinpoint your reasons for not being happy with your voice. Then look for methods to make it better. . "

If we're stuck by the thought that "my voice sounds strange" instead of understanding the factors that make us uncomfortable, it's difficult to fix the issue. Michael suggests using this active method to identify the parts of your voice you don't like and working on correcting them.

     "Maybe it's time to talk in a more relaxed manner, or perhaps more clearly. Perhaps you choose to make an audio-persona to make it more or less "you" however it's more like being someone else in some way. After you've completed the day's activities, the main problem is who that you're.

     There is no magic trick. Accepting and embracing your natural voice is the very first stage, and then you'll need to discover ways to be a better speaker will make you more comfortable with your voice . "

This last point can be an excellent way to transition into the final piece of advice for changing the impression of your acceptance.

Acceptance

If you're not taking the vocal therapy program or taking courses in public speaking then the next step in getting more at ease with your voice is accepting your voice as it is.

The only person that thinks your voice is "weird" in recordings is the voice you use. For everyone else, it's exact as normal since the listeners don't "hear" your bone conduction. It provides your voice with that additional subwoofer layer.

People are also more likely to listen to your speech's content rather than the sound high quality of your voice (unless you have a problem with your microphone or the quality of your audio, in which case they'll blame the technology). So, you shouldn't worry about the opinions of others. Create amazing content.

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Record lets you be more productive than ever in creating high-quality video content for your requirements. Whatever your profession, whether it's a professional in communication marketing executive, CEO , or even an influential social media user, you can make videos quick and easy.

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