1. Emergency medical triage decisions are swayed by computer-manipulated cues of physical dominance in caller’s voice
- Author
-
Jean-Julien Aucouturier, Laurent Boidron, Christophe Avena, Karim Boudenia, Jean-Michel Boucheix, Département de médecine d'urgence / SAMU - SMUR - CESU 21 (CHU de Dijon), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Dijon - Hôpital François Mitterrand ( CHU Dijon ), Laboratoire d'Etude de l'Apprentissage et du Développement [Dijon] ( LEAD ), Université de Bourgogne ( UB ) -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS ), Equipe Perception et design sonores, Sciences et Technologies de la Musique et du Son ( STMS ), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 ( UPMC ) -IRCAM-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS ) -Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 ( UPMC ) -IRCAM-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS ), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Dijon - Hôpital François Mitterrand (CHU Dijon), Laboratoire d'Etude de l'Apprentissage et du Développement [Dijon] (LEAD), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Sciences et Technologies de la Musique et du Son (STMS), and Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
Attractiveness ,Adult ,Male ,Persuasion ,Emergency Medical Services ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Applied psychology ,Decision Making ,050109 social psychology ,[ SCCO.PSYC ] Cognitive science/Psychology ,Complementarity ,Article ,[ SDV.NEU.PC ] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Psychology and behavior ,03 medical and health sciences ,[ SDV.NEU.SC ] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Cognitive Sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Phone ,Emergency medical services ,Pressure ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Simulation ,media_common ,Multidisciplinary ,Mens voices ,[SDV.NEU.PC]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Psychology and behavior ,business.industry ,Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems ,05 social sciences ,S Voice ,[SDV.NEU.SC]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Cognitive Sciences ,Patient satisfaction ,Triage ,Telephone consultation ,Formant ,Masculinity ,Behaviors ,[SCCO.PSYC]Cognitive science/Psychology ,Formant frequencies influence ,Voice ,Female ,business ,Psychology - Abstract
In humans as well as other animals, displays of body strength such as power postures or deep masculine voices are associated with prevalence in conflicts of interest and facilitated access to resources. We conduct here an ecological and highly critical test of this hypothesis in a domain that, on first thought, would appear to be shielded from such influences: access to emergency medical care. Using acoustic manipulations of vocal masculinity, we systematically varied the perceived level of physical dominance of mock patients calling a medical call center simulator. Callers whose voice were perceived as indicative of physical dominance (i.e. those with low fundamental and formant frequency voices) obtained a higher grade of response, a higher evaluation of medical emergency and longer attention from physicians than callers with strictly identical medical needs whose voice signaled lower physical dominance. Strikingly, while the effect was important for physician participants, it was virtually non-existent when calls were processed by non-medically-trained phone operators. This finding demonstrates an unprecedented degree of vulnerability of telephone-based medical decisions to extra-medical factors carried by vocal cues and shows that it may not simply be assumed that more medical training will shield decisions from such influences.
- Published
- 2016