Psychologists at Yale University have conducted research that sheds light on how your audio quality might influence how others perceive you. The study saw cognitive scientists Brian Scholl, Robert Walter, and Joan Ongchoco have hundreds of people listen to audio of various scenarios, including job interviews and claim submissions. These audio clips included the original, high-quality recordings, as well as versions that were modified to sound low-quality and “tinny.” Participants then filled out a questionnaire about what they thought of each speaker.
The results, which were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed a clear bias that speakers with lower-quality recordings were deemed to be less intelligent and less convincing.
“In the case of hiring, for example, people said they were much more likely to want to hire the person when they heard the recording with a very clear microphone,” Scholl told NPR.
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The findings confirmed Scholl’s initial suspicion, born from an observation he made during the pandemic. During a virtual call, two colleagues were debating an issue.
“One of them was an especially close collaborator,” Scholl told NPR. “We almost always see eye-to-eye. He happened to be participating on Zoom, using the microphone of an older, not-so-hot laptop, and his voice had that sort of tinny quality. I just sort of noticed that his comments didn’t seem quite so compelling as I thought they usually did.”
The study’s findings were consistent among male and female voices, various accents, and even voices that were computer-generated. All in all, you may want to pay close attention to your audio quality the next time you are present in a company meeting.
