Interesting Facts

Just to prove that your tone of voice really matters, supermarket chain Tesco is replacing the “irritating and bossy” female voice on self-service tills. Instead shoppers will hear a “friendlier, more helpful and less talkative” man. (How about getting rid of the things altogether?) The Sun came up with a translation of what this machine talk really means:- Unexpected item in bagging area. Translates as "Are you trying to nick something." Approval needed. Translates as "A surly teenager will be over to check you're old enough." Please wait for assistance. Translates as "We will come over when we can be bothered."

You've probably never heard of Susan Bennett, but if you own one of the latest Apple phones you will have talked to her. She is the voice behind Siri, Apple's built-in speech-recognition "personal assistant". (You can listen to the real Siri here:-

Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA, came up with the 7%-38%-55% rule. (His premise is that when it comes to "liking" someone,  words account for 7%, tone of voice accounts for 38%, and body language accounts for 55%, this is abbreviated as the "3 Vs" for Verbal, Vocal & Visual. Unfortunately people often use his research to say that communication is only 7% verbal.  Which of course is nonsense. On his website, Mehrabian clearly states: "Total Liking = 7% Verbal Liking + 38% Vocal Liking + 55% Facial Liking. Please note that this and other equations regarding relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages were derived from experiments dealing with communications of feelings and attitudes (i.e., like–dislike). Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable. Also see references 286 and 305 in Silent Messages – these are the original sources of my findings....

U.S. singer Tim Storms holds the record for the world's lowest voice. (He can reach notes as low as G-7 (0.189Hz): 8 octaves below the lowest G on a piano. Notes that are so low only animals like elephants are able to hear them. He believes he can create this kind of sound because his vocal chords are about twice as long as normal ones.)

According to an Ofcom survey, texting has overtaken voice calling as our preferred method of communication. (Brits now send on average 50 text messages a week, and in 2011 we spent 5 per cent less time on the phone than in 2010. In fact 58 per cent of adults send text messages each day to friends and family. I have to admit I don't phone people as often as I used to, but I don't text either, I use Google talk.)