Work

Vocal pitch as an acoustic marker of social support efficacy in women friendships.

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: = 59; friend pairs) where participants recorded scripted reappraisals (i.e., reinterpretations) of aversive stimuli to support a friend with regulating emotion. Using Bayesian statistics, we found cumulative evidence that when support givers used higher pitch in delivering these reappraisals, targets of support experienced less negative affect. Targets of support also reported greater relationship satisfaction with support givers who used higher pitch during reappraisal. These data consisted primarily of women friend pairs, with preliminary results indicating that these associations may not hold in men friendships. These results highlight acoustic features of verbal communication as a promising mechanism for strengthening social ties and emotional well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology General

DOI: 10.1037/xge0001841