Analytics

ANALYTICS

A total of 62 people took the survey which I posted for five weeks on Facebook.  The survey included listening to two 20 second sound bites:  one of a male using vocal fry and one of a female using vocal fry.  Both were done in a broadcast setting. The listener was then directed to SurveyMonkey to answer five questions and, if desire, add comments.  

Question 1 had to do with the sex of the respondent. Of the 62 people who participated in the survey, 77.4% were female.

Question 2 placed the survey respondents into one of three age categories.  72.6% of the people who took the survey were young people ages 18 to 33. Nine people (14.5%) were ages 34 to 50 and eight (12.9%) were 51 or older.

The third question asked the respondents to rate six statements based upon the sound bites which they had listened to.  Three of the statements corresponded to the male vocal fry voice and three corresponded to the female vocal fry voice.  The statements were rated using a Likert-type scale in which five responses were offered.  The response set included:  Strongly agree, Agree, Undecided, Disagree, and Strongly disagree.

The first two statements had to do with whether or not the listener found the announcer to be believable.  

In regard to the female announcer, 21/62 (33.9%) did not consider her to be believable.  Interestingly, 13/62 (21%) strongly agreed that she was believable and the same amount of respondents, 13/62 (21%) were undecided.  Overall, 26/62 (41.9%) did not think that she was believable and 23/62 (37.1%) did.

For the male announcer, 36/60 (60%) agreed that he was believable.  Out of the 60 respondents, another 15 (25%) strongly agreed that he was believable and 6/60 (10%) were undecided. Largely, by a count of 51/60 (85%), the male announcer was found to be believable and only 3/60 (5%) disagreed.  

In the final analysis for being believable, the male announcer was found to be more believable (at 85%) than the female announcer (at 37.1%).

The next two statements dealt with whether or not the listener thought that the announcer was competent.

For the female announcer, 18/61 (29.5%) agreed that she was competent and 15/61 (24.6%) strongly agreed.  16/61 (26.2%) were undecided.  Overall, 33/61 (51%) concurred that she was competent and 12/61 (19.7%) believed that she was not. 

In the case of the male announcer, 30/60 (50%) agreed that he was competent and 18 more (30%) strongly agreed.  Only 6/60 (10%) were undecided and 6/60 (10%) believed he was not competent.  

Based upon this data, the majority of the respondents found the male announcer (at 80%) to be more competent than the female (at 54.1%).

The last two statements asked the listener if he/she found the announcer to be annoying.

In relation to the female announcer, 21/62 (33.9%) strongly agreed that she was annoying and another 16 (25.8%) agreed, combining for a total of 59.7% being annoyed by the announcer.  In contrast, 17/62 (27.4%) did not find her to be annoying.

Relative to the male announcer, 24/61 (39.3%) disagreed that he was annoying and another 16 (26.2%) strongly disagreed for a total of 65.5%. Only 9/61 (14.8%) believed him to be annoying.

This data suggests that respondents overwhelmingly (59.7%) found the female announcer to be annoying versus the male at 14.8%.

The results, based upon the data of these six statements, revealthat respondents found the female announcer to be less believable, less competent, and more annoying than the male announcer.

The fourth question asked the listener if he/she preferred the male voice over the female voice.

41/62 (66.1%) answered that they did prefer the male voice over the female voice. 11/62 (17.7%) said it did not matter.

The fifth question basically asked the same thing as question four, but just changed the wording by asking the listener whether he/she preferred the female voice over the male voice.  Interestingly, one respondent changed their answer revealing this time that 40/62 (64.5%) preferred the male voice over the female voice.

Twenty-six survey respondents made comments.  There were 11 positive comments and 3 negative comments directed at the male announcer, whereas there was 1 positive and 20 negative comments directed at the female announcer.