Me, not-me: Voice note use predicts self-voice recognition and liking

Abstract

Voice notes, spoken messages recorded and sent via smartphones, have become a widespread means of communication. A likely consequence of this situation is that voice note users become more frequently exposed to recordings of their own voices (self-voices). This correlational study examined if frequent exposure to recordings of the self-voice via voice note replay was associated with improved self-voice recognition (accuracy and response latency) and self-voice liking. Participants (N = 128), regular voice note users, reported voice note replay frequency. They also reported self-voice satisfaction/liking. Finally, participants completed a novel self-voice recognition task, where, across 20 trials, they identified whether a recording was them (self-voice) or not (non-self-voice). The tendency to frequently replay voice notes was positively correlated with self-voice liking and recognition accuracy. These findings may have implications for the treatment of social anxiety disorder and auditory verbal hallucinations.