Seductive female satnavs make men drive more riskily, study finds
Seductive female voices on car satnavs can lead men to take more risks when driving, a study suggests.
When given instructions by higher-pitched women’s voices, men were more likely to run through amber traffic lights, the Chinese researchers found.
“Therefore, it is advised to reduce the femininity of voices in car voice interaction designs to enhance driving safety,” said the Fudan University research team in an academic paper in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
Female voices have usually been set as default for car satnavs since the technology became widespread around 30 years ago.
“While innovations like celebrity voice packs in car navigation systems are popular among users, their influence on safety, particularly whether they prompt risky behaviours among male drivers due to the allure of ‘seductive’ female voices, remains questionable,” said the Chinese researchers.
Virtual reality
In one experiment, 66 men were given instructions by a female voice in a virtual reality (VR) driving simulator. As they approached a junction, the traffic light would change to amber.
The voice was pre-recorded with phrases such as “approaching the intersection” and “proceed” when the traffic light was green. Computer software was used to alter the voice between high and low-pitched for different test subjects.
The Highway Code says that an amber light means stop – and the signal has the same meaning in China, where the experiment was conducted.
Men who heard the higher-pitched female voice were around 40 per cent more likely to keep going through the amber light.
Plank bridge experiment
A second experiment had the men cross a plank bridge across a high gap, also in VR. Before crossing the bridge, the men were played a female voice sample – half being high-pitched and half being low-pitched.
Researchers asked participants to rate the voice’s attractiveness, with a majority saying the higher-pitched voice was more appealing to them.
On average, men exposed to the higher-pitched voice crossed the plank faster than men who heard the lower-pitched voice. The researchers suggested this was because the higher-pitched voice subliminally triggered them to take greater risk.
Fighter jets
Female voices are used in a variety of settings where automated announcements are made, including the cockpits of fighter jets.
Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet features a voice unceremoniously dubbed “Bitchin’ Betty” by the aircraft’s mostly male pilots.
The system was voiced by Leslie Shook, a Boeing employee, who was brought in when the original voice actress was deemed to be “too sweet” to bark out emergency orders such as “pull up”.
The Eurofighter Typhoon, in RAF service, also features an English woman with a received pronunciation accent intoning instructions to its crews.