Most people are content with their voices as long as it’s not recorded. Hearing your voice from an audio or video recording can be quite cringe especially if you’re not used to it. Quite often, it may sound irritating and even embarrassing. However, the truth is that the reason people loathe hearing their recorded voices is psychological and physiological. Other people don’t care about your voice because that’s how you have always spoken since they met you. Some people might even like your voice. Let’s dig a little deeper as to why people hate the sound of their own voices before listing ways to remedy this problem.
How Do People Perceive The Sound of Their Voices?
According to psychologists, the condition where people don’t like their voices is called voice confrontation. It is among the leading causes of how people perceive their own sound. There are two ways this happens. The first one is through bone induction, which entails how people familiarize themselves with their voices from birth.
When you talk, you hear your voice through the bones in the skull, hence the name bone induction. You only hear a fraction of your voice through air induction. Because bone induction has been happening for years, you’re probably used to your voice when you talk, and everything seems normal.
However, when hearing your recorded voice, the waves travel through air induction. This process eliminates the internal element that is associated with bone induction. Remember, bones send sound waves through low frequencies. Without them, your voice will sound different. The pitch will be higher, and you may notice faults with your tone, dialect, and accent.
Because it is in our nature to over-scrutinize ourselves, this leads to people hating their recorded voices. Hearing your recorded voice sometimes makes you feel like you’ve been wearing a disguise.
How Psychological Factors Affect How People Perceive Their Voices
The other reason why people hate their voices is based on psychological factors. Depending on your race, level of education, and geographical location, there are stereotypes associated with how you talk. These stereotypes have been ingrained in our minds, and we use them to judge how others speak.
When you start doing podcasts or interviews and have to listen to your voice, you judge it based on these psychological factors. For a voice recording that may be shared with the public, you may over-scrutinize it not to sound uneducated or unintelligent.
These two reasons are enough to make you never want to speak into a microphone or camera ever again.
Is Your Voice Really Bad?
Whatever you hear when you listen to your recorded voice is perfect. There is nothing wrong with your voice. Let’s use a car as an example. When driving a car inside the cabin, you feel very little noise from the engine, brakes, and other mechanical parts. However, when you step out of the vehicle, the engine gets louder, and so do the mechanical parts.
The car body is just like your bones and skin that muffle the noise of your voice. Actually, what you hear when you talk is not your actual voice. The one in the recording is the authentic voice that the world hears.
That said, the reason you probably think your voice is bad is all in the mind. Your voice is like your passport. It’s what makes you unique. Your voice is what people use to identify you. Have you ever heard someone talk and immediately knew who it was? Did you judge how they talk? Probably not! It’s that uniqueness that helps you identify them without seeing them.
How to Stop Disliking Your Voice
If you have issues with the sound of your voice, start recording and listening to your voice over and over again. Take radio hosts and podcasters, for instance. Do you think they dislike their voices? By listening to their voices for a long time, they familiarized themselves with how they sound through air induction.
Something else that might help is to detach your voice from yourself. Do not think of it as your voice. Give it a name. By detaching from your voice, you’ll not over-scrutinize it.
If you think your voice is so bad, get an honest opinion from a close friend or family member. Ask them if your recordings sound weird and whether there are areas you need to improve. Be open to positive criticism and work on flaws if there are any.
Some coaching can go a long way for those who crave the perfect voice. You’ll learn to achieve lower or higher notes within your vocal range. During coaching, open up to your instructor about your fears. Did kids use to make fun of your voice? By addressing these fears, you can learn to love your voice.
Your voice is an integral part of your identity. Instead of hating it, you should embrace it. Disliking your voice is like hating how you smell, hear, see or touch objects.