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The sound of emergency: The role of vocal cues in healthcare

Author

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  • Bagnis, Arianna
  • Todorov, Alexander
  • Caffo, Ernesto
  • De Palma, Alessandra
  • Franchini, Francesco
  • Melucci, Pierfrancesco
  • Mattarozzi, Katia

Abstract

A considerable body of research has explored how first impressions from voices influence social decisions, demonstrating the significance of perceived emotional and social traits alongside acoustic parameters across various contexts, including elections, legal decisions, and economic or mating-related choices. In a novel ecological context, specifically healthcare emergency dispatch, where trained nurses respond to critical health situations, we investigated whether caller voice characteristics (e.g., acoustic parameters, gender, emotional valence and arousal, social trait attributions) is related to healthcare professionals' prioritization decisions beyond available clinical information. We selected cases when the call-taker deviated from an algorithm, changing the proposed priority, to understand which factors may bias their decision. We dissociated acoustic-phonetic features from semantic content by manipulating stimuli across different experimental samples, comprised of Italian and American participants. Judgments of emotional traits (valence and arousal) and social traits (perceived trustworthiness, dominance, familiarity, and attractiveness) were collected from all participants while listening brief excerpts (mean audio length of 3 s) from original call recordings. Critically, we found that social attributions of dominance and attractiveness, arousal and valence ratings, as well as control variables such as voice gender, pitch, harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR), and COVID-19 related pathologies, were significantly associated with instances where call-takers made wrong decisions by either overestimating or underestimating care priority.

Suggested Citation

  • Bagnis, Arianna & Todorov, Alexander & Caffo, Ernesto & De Palma, Alessandra & Franchini, Francesco & Melucci, Pierfrancesco & Mattarozzi, Katia, 2025. "The sound of emergency: The role of vocal cues in healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 384(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:384:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625008895
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118558
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Chen, Daniel L. & Halberstam, Yosh & Yu, Alan, 2016. "Perceived Masculinity Predicts U.S. Supreme Court Outcomes," IAST Working Papers 16-40, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    2. repec:plo:pone00:0204991 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:plo:pone00:0164324 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Phil McAleer & Alexander Todorov & Pascal Belin, 2014. "How Do You Say ‘Hello’? Personality Impressions from Brief Novel Voices," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(3), pages 1-9, March.
    5. Casey A Klofstad & Rindy C Anderson & Stephen Nowicki, 2015. "Perceptions of Competence, Strength, and Age Influence Voters to Select Leaders with Lower-Pitched Voices," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-14, August.
    6. Bagnis, Arianna & Caffo, Ernesto & Cipolli, Carlo & De Palma, Alessandra & Farina, Gabriele & Mattarozzi, Katia, 2020. "Judging health care priority in emergency situations: Patient facial appearance matters," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    7. Feagin, Joe & Bennefield, Zinobia, 2014. "Systemic racism and U.S. health care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 7-14.
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    9. Mattarozzi, Katia & Colonnello, Valentina & De Gioia, Francesco & Todorov, Alexander, 2017. "I care, even after the first impression: Facial appearance-based evaluations in healthcare context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 68-72.
    10. Ahmed, Shaker & Ranta, Mikko & Vähämaa, Emilia & Vähämaa, Sami, 2023. "Facial attractiveness and CEO compensation: Evidence from the banking industry," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
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    1. Integlia, Davide & Marra, Alessandro, 2026. "A vignette-based approach to stakeholder-based health need elicitation: Overcoming methodological heterogeneity and capturing implicit needs," SocArXiv cvfqt_v1, Center for Open Science.

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