Learn why we hate our own voices.
Hating your recorded voice isn’t a sign of fragile self-image. It’s a simple byproduct of the weird ways our bodies work sometimes. In this case, it’s our ears’ fault.
Sound enters our ears two ways – through bone and through air. When we hear our own voice as we speak, the sound is altered by our skull, as opposed to air conducted sounds which arrive via the eardrums.
Dr. Chris Chang, a specialist from Warrenton, Virginia explains, “When someone listens to a recording of their voice speaking, the bone-conducted pathway that they consider part of their ‘normal’ voice is eliminated, and they hear only…what everybody else actually hears.”
The fact that it’s unpleasant to listen to is because it sounds unfamiliar. It doesn’t sync up with what we’re used to hearing and what we expect to hear so the impulse is to dislike it.
If that information doesn’t help and you’re still mortified by the thought of going around sounding like you do perhaps you can find peace in the form of a voice changer phone app.
Downloadable options include robot, a cartoon character, and an alien.
