
Ask HN: Why are most voice interfaces female? - dmritard96
Alexa, Siri, Cortana, &#x27;Ok Google&#x27; all have female voices.  Is this random chance, a symptom of something more systematic?
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andymurd
I worked on automation of some of the PA announcements used on railway
stations in the UK, e.g. "The next train from platform 4 is the...". These
were recorded sets of words and phrases that could be concatenated to sound
quite natural and the content of most were very dull.

Every sound file was recorded in a male version and a female version although
the female was used almost all the time. I asked about this and was told the
following:

* Women respond equally to male and female voices

* Men instinctively rebel against petty instruction given in a male voice... unless...

* In a threatening situation (fire, football riot etc) orders in a male voice are trusted more

I don't know how true any of this really is when applied in the real world,
but maybe the similar studies have been applied to conversational interfaces.

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HeyLaughingBoy
There is an _excellent_ , if dated, Nova episode called "Top Gun and Beyond"
that addresses this. Navy research showed that the (all male) fighter pilots
responded much faster to a female voice, so that's what they put in the voice
alerts.

This is a minor point in the program, though. It's really one of my favorite
Nova episodes and I recommend it to anyone.

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mtmail
Why computer voices are mostly female
[http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/21/tech/innovation/female-
com...](http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/21/tech/innovation/female-computer-
voices/index.html) gives a couple of reason, from biology, history and "It's
much easier to find a female voice that everyone likes than a male voice that
everyone likes"

~~~
dmritard96
Interesting. Its also interesting how much of a gender construct can come
through. Listening to music often times I can't tell male from female but with
spoken words it always seems obvious.

~~~
BjoernKW
This likely depends on the music genre and voice effects applied to the vocal
track.

Usually, telling if a singer is male or female isn't any more difficult than
it is for speakers. While in singing there's considerable overlap in ranges
between male and female voice types, the overtones produced by a male singer
differ from those produced by a female singer. A C5 sung by a tenor will sound
very different from a C5 sung by a soprano.

That said, especially in pop music there's the tendency for male singers to
use their falsetto register, which tends to sound 'feminine' or androgynous.
Moreover, in pop music you also have an abundant use of voice filters and
synthesizers such as the infamous vocoders that make distinguishing voice
types more difficult.

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Mz
It may partly be simply because in Star Trek the ship's computer had a female
voice. I would guess that many companies do not actually put a great deal of
research into selecting the voice, but go with what is familiar without
wondering why it was historically done that way and whether or not it was a
good idea. When you do research it, there are valid reasons to go with a
woman's voice. But I strongly suspect most companies do not actually put
substantial resources into the decision.

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mbrock
I think the genderedness of this kind of labor explains much of it.... try
Google Image Search for "secretary" or "assistant".

[https://www.google.com/search?q=secretary&tbm=isch](https://www.google.com/search?q=secretary&tbm=isch)

[https://www.google.com/search?q=assistant&tbm=isch](https://www.google.com/search?q=assistant&tbm=isch)

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gvb
Wikipedia:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitching_Betty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitching_Betty)

Lots of [citation needed], but interesting historical background on voice
warning systems.

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setra
I imagine it's because of the male tendency to make things they build female.
Boats, AI, Cars, etc.

~~~
dmritard96
lol. my old boat name was 'grunt slayer', I guess it could be female, never
really thought about it.

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1123581321
Anecdotally, I find higher-pitched voices easier to hear.

~~~
yompers888
Anecdotally, I have an instructor whose teaching I can't stand, despite her
excellent teaching style, because her voice feels like it's hitting the
resonant frequency of my head, and I get a headache after 40 or so minutes.

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freestockoption
History of the male/female BART voices:
[http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2009/news20090309](http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2009/news20090309)

