Children use their speech to act masculine or feminine from young age

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-11-15 11:01

International

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Children as young as 8 years old use the pitch of their voice to seem more masculine or feminine to make friends, according to international researchers. A study asked 56 children aged 8-10 to act out scenarios where a child is trying to make friends with a group of children with a stereotypically 'male' interest like rugby or 'female' interest like ballet. Recording the children speaking, the researchers say the children deliberately spoke in a higher pitch to make friends with the ballet group, and a lower pitch to make friends with the rugby group.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Peer audience effects on children’s vocal masculinity and femininity

Children change their vocal behaviour in response to peers’ stereotypically masculine or feminine interests. Fifty-six children, between eight and ten years old, read out masculine, feminine and gender neutral self-descriptive statements to make friends with hypothetical peers with stereotypically masculine or feminine interests, like rugby or ballet. Boys and girls spontaneously “feminised” their voices when speaking to members of the ballet club and “masculinised” their voices when speaking to members of the rugby club by raising or lowering their vocal pitch.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Sussex, UK

Funder: This study was funded by Leverhulme Trust (grant no. RPG- 2016-396).

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