Speaker and listener gender effects during speeded classification

Sibilants, especially /s/, are strongly correlated with cisgender speaker sex (e.g., Houle et al., 2023; Brown, 2015). However, the relationship between sibilants and gender expansive (GE) speech is less known. The current study investigates whether GE listeners perceive GE voices differently than cisgender listeners. Listeners were presented with speech produced by transgender and cisgender men and women in two conditions: natural productions (unmodified f0) and modified f0 in which f0 was set to 160 Hz. Listeners were asked to identify the initial phoneme of minimal pairs of words as either /s/ or /ʃ/. The results indicated that listeners processed the speech samples with the modified f0 differently; nonbinary listeners showed no difference in processing speed (reaction time) for unmodified and modified tokens, whereas cisgender listeners were slower when responding to the modified productions. This is notable given that the change in f0 did not alter the fricative portion, as all fricatives were voiceless. These results suggest that GE listeners may be more “accepting” of voices that do not adhere to a strict binary. This work seeks to expand the acoustic measures of focus as it increases options for individuals regarding their voice and communication when seeking gender-affirming care.