Namy et al. / GENDER DIFFERENCES IN VOCAL ACCOMMODATION GENDER DIFFERENCES IN VOCAL ACCOMMODATION: The Role Of Perception

This study examined how perceptual sensitivity contributes to gender differences in vocal accommodation. Male and female shadowers repeated isolated words presented over headphones by male and female speakers, and male and female listeners evaluated whether accommodation occurred. Female shadowers accommodated more than males, and more to males than to female speakers, although some speakers elicited greater accommodation than others. Gender differences in accommodation emerged even when immediate social motives were minimized, suggesting that accommodation may be due, in part, to differences in perceptual sensitivity to vocal characteristics. Human speech carries an enormous amount of information. Clearly, spoken language allows us to communicate through words and sen-tences. However, speech also carries indexical information—data about the individual speaker including physical, social, and psycholog-ical characteristics such as age, gender, social status, and emotional state (Abercrombie, 1967; Laver, 1989; Laver & Trudgill, 1979). Indexical information is important for communication because it often affects a listener’s perception of and attributions about the individual speaker. For example, indexical cues can influence listeners ’ percep-tion of the speaker’s attractiveness, their classification of the individ-ual into a particular group or class, and even the persuasive power of the speaker (e.g., DePaulo, 1992; Oskenberg, Coleman, & Cannell