Voices in Your Head: Wearing Headphones Changes Listening

FRIDAY, Feb. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Headphones have a a lot larger influence on listeners than exterior audio system as a result of they put voices “inside your head,” a brand new research explains.

“Headphones produce a phenomenon referred to as in-head localization, which makes the speaker sound as in the event that they’re inside your head,” mentioned research co-author On Amir, a professor of selling on the University of California, San Diego.

“Consequently, listeners understand the communicators as nearer — each bodily and socially. As a end result, listeners understand the communicator as hotter, they really feel and behave extra empathically towards them and they’re extra simply persuaded by them,” Amir defined in a college information launch.

The findings may have important implications for coaching packages, distant work and promoting, based on the researchers.

In a collection of experiments and surveys involving greater than 4,000 individuals, the investigators discovered that headphones have a a lot stronger impact than exterior audio system on listeners’ perceptions, judgments and behaviors.

The findings — scheduled to be revealed within the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes —may make a mark in a variety of areas, together with distant work and office coaching, the researchers instructed.

“Organizations might think about this analysis when designing their trainings or webinars,” mentioned research creator Juliana Schroeder, affiliate professor of administration, on the University of California, Berkeley. “For instance, managers would possibly encourage workers to take heed to security trainings or webinars utilizing headphones, which can extra successfully change their attitudes and behaviors, in comparison with listening through audio system.”

Companies may ship workers headphones to encourage their use in telephone conversations, which may enhance collaboration, particularly within the period of distant work, Amir added.

Headphones may domesticate a extra loyal and engaged viewers for on-air personalities, the researchers mentioned.

“Clearly, our analysis means that influencers, bloggers and podcasters wish to attempt to be sure that individuals pay attention by headphones as a result of that creates that attachment,” Amir mentioned. “Our analysis proposes that it’s not solely what or whom individuals hear that influences their judgments, choices and behaviors, but additionally how they hear the message.”

More info

For recommendation on secure headphone use, go to Harvard Health.

SOURCE: University of California, San Diego, information launch, Feb. 23, 2022