I hate my voice. Every time I hear a recording I cringe. I mean it’s not that awful, just something about hearing it makes me shudder.
Why is that? Why do our own voices creep us out?
Part of it is because our voice sounds different to us than to the outside world. So when we hear a recording of a disembodied, foreign voice that is our own, it can be a little unnerving. Add a bit of mechanical static and we’re having a horror movie like experience.
But why does it sound different?
When we talk, and listen to ourselves talk, we hear our voice in three separate ways. First, we catch the sound that leaves our mouths externally through our ears. But soundwaves also pass from our vocal cords to our hearing apparatus through a filter of flesh and bone, transforming in the process into a more muffled version. Finally, we feel the vibrations of our voice, the tremble of the vocal cords and the rumble of the sound itself, which adds another layer to what we perceive.
So in the end, what we hear is very different than what is, and when we’re given a recording of it, it feels foreign, contradicting and we tend to strongly dislike the sound of it.
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