What does fear sound like? Voice pitch, cognitive frames, and perceptions of domestic abuse victimization

Abstract

Sociolinguists emphasize the context-dependence of social meanings activated by linguistic variation (Eckert, 2008). I examine this dynamic using the Goffmanian concept of frames (Goffman, 1974), focusing on the intersection of gender and sexuality. More specifically, I explore pitch variation as an index of femininity in the domestic abuse victimization frame. People expect the “ideal victim” to be weak, blameless, and, importantly, female (Christie, 1986). Using an experiment, I show that female victims who diverge from this expectation by having a lower voice pitch are perceived as less scared and less rational than their higher-pitched counterparts. This effect only emerges for victims in heteronormative relationships, however, with voice pitch becoming “indexically inoperative” (Levon & Ye, 2019) in cases where a victim already diverges from stereotypical expectations of a victim by having a female abuser. I discuss this finding in relation to established dynamics in sociolinguistic perception, and to domestic abuse policing.

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ORCID for Matthew Hunt: orcid.org/0000-0001-6599-7727

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