The effect of information on listeners' attitudes toward speakers with voice or resonance disorders.

This study investigated university students' attitudes toward women with voice or resonance disorders and whether providing listeners with information about those disorders affected their attitudes towards the women. Eighty students listened to speech samples of 9 women: 3 with normal voice/resonance, 3 with moderate hoarseness/breathiness, and 3 with moderate hypernasality and nasal emission. Before listening to the speech samples, 40 students read two pages of information about the disorders, and 40 read two pages of neutral information. Attitudes were measured with 24 semantic differential scales. Results indicated that listeners perceived speakers with voice/resonance disorders more negatively than speakers without disorders. The attitudes of listeners who read voice and resonance information did not differ from those of listeners who read neutral information.