Acoustic indicators of voice quality in the context of social support

Is social support communicated throught the subtle, yet powerful, acoustic variations in speech? This study attempted to answer this question by testing whether acoustic parameters vary when expressing social support. Participants underwent an experiment in which they watched video testimonials of a woman describing either a neutral subject or a sensitive, emotionally-charged experience. After this, participants provided voice messages to the person appearing in the testimony. Employing the openSMILE toolkit, we extracted from these speech responses the Geneva Minimalistic Acoustic Parameter Set (GeMAPS), a set of emotion-related acoustic features. Our investigation reveals an acoustic profile characteristic of supportive speech, distinguished by changes in the Alpha ratio, spectral slope, and the Hammarberg index — parameters representing the high-frequency content and spectral balance. These acoustic differences not only help to differentiate supportive utterances but also characterize its voice quality, thereby enhancing the emotional richness of this affective stance. Our research findings have potential applications in therapeutic and communication settings and open avenues for further exploration in speech science.