How Your Brain Tricks You On What You Hear And How You Sound

I think it is interesting that most people do not recognize their own voice when they hear it on a recording, but can recognize the voice of someone they know in a crowd.

Even odder, yet very common, most people do not like hearing their own voice. We live with our brains, yet we don't think about how our brains controls even a simple thing like how we really sound.

The real reason the sound of your own voice makes you cringe

Dr Silke Paulmann, a psychologist at the University of Essex, says, “I would speculate that the fact that we sound more high-pitched than what we think we should leads us to cringe as it doesn’t meet our internal expectations; our voice plays a massive role in forming our identity and I guess no one likes to realise that you’re not really who you think you are.”

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn
My own voice has a rose-quart color and when I hear it from a device or recording, it's brighter but the same color.


It's actually the resonances in the head bones that make the lower frequency perceived, our brain is just not used to it, as it's unnatural. Except for an echo in nature, we never heard our own voices before.

Our brain actually blocks the recognition of our own voice...we do not hear it. That goes for lots of animals, it is part of our natures to do so. It picks up sounds that are threats most times though. If you go work at a factory, first of all it is really noisy, but with our filter system we learn to block out the frequencies in the background and we can hear others talking to us or sounds that are different without hearing the sounds in the environment. This blocking is done with vision too, you will notice what you want to notice, it is very common in humans.

I don't hear my own voice when I talk, I do not need to. I do notice when there is something wrong with my voice though, if the pitch change, I can then hear it. I do not know why someone would think they do not like the sound of their own voice. I don't mind mine, it is not great, but it gets the job done.

a reply to: rickymouse

I do not know why someone would think they do not like the sound of their own voice. I don't mind mine, it is not great, but it gets the job done.

I think you answered why. We are hardwired to process the familiar, and most of the time we equate that with being safe. The brain already knows every word we speak, and million more that we don't. The brain brain has no need to process the sounds of our voice, it uses that energy for other things.

It is not uncommon to hear someone say, " I heard someone screaming, but I didn't see them", only to find out later, the person screaming was them. I actually experienced that weirdness, a long time ago when I was in a fire. It was if my body was functioning remotely. I didn't even feel pain at the time.

Our brain likes the familiar. Anything it has already blocked or categorized that presents itself outside of the process, may be an annoyance, or irritating, or just ignored. Just an idea. I am just thinking out loud.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

That's wild!

I hate the sound of my speaking voice, but am actually quite fond of my singing voice.

originally posted by: wheresthebody
a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

That's wild!

I hate the sound of my speaking voice, but am actually quite fond of my singing voice.

I used to think I sounded halfway decent, until I heard a recording of my singing. I moved to the back of the choir after that.

Im Irish i #in' love me voice

originally posted by: SecretKnowledge
Im Irish i #in' love me voice

The beauty of that, is that I am sure many others love your voice also.

My great grandfather was Irish. So I would likely love your voice as well.

originally posted by: wheresthebody
a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

That's wild!

I hate the sound of my speaking voice, but am actually quite fond of my singing voice.

I'm the opposite....my singing voice will cause me to run screaming into the night.

a reply to: olaru12

I will happily auto tune a recording of you.

No jokes.

I hate the sound of my recorded voice. Always have. But I'll admit I haven't really heard it too many times, because I hate it so much.

I don't think I have ever heard a recording of my singing voice. Don't let other people here it either. I already know it's not good. Hearing it would only make it sound worse.

a reply to: wheresthebody

Same here. While I would never be confused with an actual singer I had my day with karaoke before the cigs caught up with me and that's no more. I could kill some Maiden - love Infinite Dreams and Hallowed - early Metallica(not that later, boring stuff) and the odd Rush tune. I sound much better singing than I do talking.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Totally agree our brains tune out the familiar, a sound once categorized can be tuned out.

The noises I hear at work, mechanical, alarms, the airhorn door alarm used to be insane when I first started.
Now I just don't notice it, only "new noises" the machinery makes that is abnormal catch my attention. Tuning out the alarms (depending on which one) drives the supervisor nuts since he's overly sensitive to it.
In all honesty that alarm can go off all day for all I care. To me it's just background noise same as traffic to anyone else.

As far as being "cringy" hearing my own voice?
Yep!!
Have thought on & off over the years about going to a Voice Coach to fix it.