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0 pointscrazygringo2y ago0 comments

You'd be wrong. We're almost as good at recognizing voices as we are at recognizing faces.

Recently I had a friend message me to ask me if it was me asking a question at a recorded event with audience questions that they were watching on YouTube (the camera only showed the stage, not audience members at the microphones).

They had absolutely no reason to think I would have been at that particular event.

And I told them, yup -- it was me asking that question a few years ago.

And there is nothing particularly distinctive about my voice. If anything, my voice is probably particularly generic. But it's just timbre, accent, and the unique "fingerprint" of my particular vocal personality.

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IncreasePosts2y ago· 2 in thread

I don't think I would be.

How many hours has your friend heard you talk? How many hours has the average person heard Scarlett talk? Coupled with the fact that Scarlett is acting when people generally hear her voice, which means some aspects of her vocal qualities change(black widow doesn't sound exactly like her character from Her)

crazygringoOP2y ago

It has nothing to do with hours of exposure. You don't need time to learn someone's voice, in the same way you don't need time to recognize their face.

And obviously we're talking about "normal" voices as opposed to impressions or accents. But we still recognize voices even if the voice is doing a wide range of emotions. The same way we don't stop recognizing someone's face when they change from a smile to a frown.

IncreasePosts2y ago

Recognizing someone has everything to do with hours of exposure. Which is why people are better at picking their mother out of a crowd rather than a random person who they were shown a picture of once.

I'm beginning to wonder if you've ever considered your interactions with other people, or if you're just making this up as you go along.

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