ID and E-Learning Links (9/5/16)
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Should You Go With a Male or Female Voice Over?
Whether male or female voices are better for elearning narration may depend on what tone you’re trying to achieve, although the research results are a bit weak. Breaking tradition and stereotypes can sometimes be effective.
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“Men’s voices are associated with neutrality, with authoritative, factual information,” explains Arthur Chu, a Cleveland-based artist who’s done voice over work for brands like Safeway and Intel. “The voiceover you want for some kind of authoritative instructional video, or something asserting dry historical fact, is going to be that baritone, somewhat monotone, slightly stern voice.”
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“Because females tend to be the more nurturing gender by nature, their voices are often perceived as a helper, more compassionate, understanding, and non-threatening,” says Debbie Grattan, a veteran voice over artist for brands like Apple, Samsung, and Wal-Mart. “This can be important in instructional videos, (sense of patience and compassion in teaching a new skill), corporate/web narration, as well as commercial spots (conveying a less aggressive, more persuasive approach.)”
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This research found a slight benefit to recall when using male narrators, but it’s a small study and the difference wasn’t large
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There was a marginal difference in percentage of extrinsic words recalled in female vs. male narrator. There was no difference in number of extrinsic words recalled in male-visual, male-no visual, female-visual, female-no visual.
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However, when percentage of extrinsic words recalled was analyzed between male and female voice conditions, there was marginal significance, where subjects in the male voice condition recalled a greater percentage of extrinsic words than subjects in the female voice condition. This marginal significance is not enough to definitively conclude that there is a relationship between gender of narrator and recall of extrinsic words.
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Parkin’s Lot: Gender of voice-over and e-learning effectiveness
Some gender stereotypes affect the perception of voice over, but gender is likely not the most important characteristic for retention. This post is older and not all the links to citations work
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But most studies that I have seen indicate no statistically significant difference between retention by an audience of one gender of content delivered by a voice of another, or the same, gender.
In my experience there are characteristics other than gender that play a much bigger role in engaging a learner audience. Things like dynamism, clarity, ’emotional bonding’ with the content, enthusiasm, and perceived subject matter expertise are more important than whether it is a male or a female voice.
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Are Consumers More Responsive to Male or Female Voices in Advertisements?
This survey is about advertising, not elearning, but the results might be applicable in some situations. A male voice is viewed as more forceful, and a female voice is perceived as more soothing. Half of those surveyed said it made no difference though, and other results were mixed.