WEBVTT - Why Do You Hate the Sound of Your Own Voice?

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<v Speaker 1>I am Scott and I'm Then and we're from car Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>get your podcast. Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hi,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Christian Sager and welcome to brain Stuff. Have you

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<v Speaker 1>ever heard of recording of yourself played back and thought?

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<v Speaker 1>Why do I sound like that? It happens to me

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<v Speaker 1>every time I listen to this podcast. It is weird, right,

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<v Speaker 1>Usually our voices sound deeper, but when played back the

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<v Speaker 1>way everyone else hears them, they're higher and tenure. Why

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<v Speaker 1>does it sound so different and why do we hate

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<v Speaker 1>it so much? Well, the sound of your voice reaches

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<v Speaker 1>your inner ear in two different ways. The vocal folds

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<v Speaker 1>in your throat vibrate, creating sound waves that travel through

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<v Speaker 1>the air. But those sound vibrations also conduct through your body,

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<v Speaker 1>particularly through your skull and bones. Our skulls lower the

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<v Speaker 1>frequency of these later vibrations as they bounce around inside

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<v Speaker 1>our throat, mouth, and neck before reaching the ears cochlea

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<v Speaker 1>through the fleshy tissue in our heads. The surrounding bones

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<v Speaker 1>spread out the vibrations, lower their pitch and enhance the

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<v Speaker 1>lower frequency vibrations, so your voice sounds fuller and deeper.

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<v Speaker 1>When we hear our voice played back on a recording,

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<v Speaker 1>we don't get it filtered through flesh and bone. What

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<v Speaker 1>we're hearing, then, is only the air conducted sound of

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<v Speaker 1>our voice as waves of pressure. These vibrations are caught

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<v Speaker 1>by our outer ears and then transmitted through our ear drums,

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<v Speaker 1>where they vibrate three bony ousticles before reaching the cochlea.

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<v Speaker 1>In both cases, the cochlea converts these vibrations into impulses

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<v Speaker 1>that are sent to the brain. But with the elimination

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<v Speaker 1>of the bone conducted sound owned, we end up hearing

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<v Speaker 1>our voice the way everyone else hears it. Most of

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<v Speaker 1>us have had this experience, and we hate it. We're

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<v Speaker 1>used to the combination of the air conducted and bone

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<v Speaker 1>conducted sounds of our voice. It's what we've lived with

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<v Speaker 1>all of our lives, so of course it's unsettling to

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<v Speaker 1>hear something so different than what we're used to. But

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<v Speaker 1>remember this, this is how your friends have been hearing

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<v Speaker 1>you your whole life. To them, it is normal. So

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<v Speaker 1>just relax and rest easy knowing that everyone cringes at

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<v Speaker 1>the sound of their own voice, even Morgan Freeman, well

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<v Speaker 1>everyone except Morgan Freeman. Check out the brain stuff channel

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<v Speaker 1>on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands of

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<v Speaker 1>other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.