Perslaysion: The Effects of a “Gay Voice” on Interpersonal Communication Outcomes

Vocalics within nonverbal communication have been studied for their influence on a variety of both positive and negative interpersonal and relational communication outcomes. The study of vocalics has produced many works in relation to areas of persuasion and credibility. When fully diving into vocalics, the realms of linguistics and phonetics begin playing large roles in identifying the nonverbals of speech. One major overlap of combining sociology and communication studies is the creation of human structures via sociolinguistics. This project will explore the phenomenon known as the “gay voice;” a stereotypical type of vocalic that allows for the recognition of people in the queer community, also known as sociophonetics or a sociolect. This occurrence typically happens within men, usually making their voices identifiable to both ingroups and outgroups alike. While research has been conducted towards the understanding of stigmatization of and attitudes toward the gay voice, (Sulpizio, et al., 2025), work has not been done within other spaces of interpersonal communication such as persuasion, trust, and credibility.