A recent study has shed light on a surprising influence of our car’s sat nav system.
It turns out that those sultry, sexy-sounding voices in sat navs might be causing men to drive more recklessly.
Researchers from Shanghai’s Fudan University discovered that men tend to take more risks when guided by female voices with higher pitches, which are often perceived as attractive and youthful.
This finding was reported in the *Personality and Individual Differences* journal.
According to the study, when men received driving directions from a high-pitched female voice, they were significantly more likely to ignore amber traffic lights.
The allure of such voices seemed to spur risky behavior behind the wheel.
Researchers noted, “While celebrity voice packs in car navigation systems are quite popular, their impact on driver safety, particularly how seductive female voices might encourage risky behaviors, is still under debate.”
The Need for Safer Navigation Systems
The study, the first of its kind to explore how female voices affect male driving habits, involved two main experiments. In the first experiment, men using a driving simulator received instructions from either a low-pitched or high-pitched female voice.
The results showed that those listening to the higher-pitched voice were approximately 40% more likely to drive through amber lights, highlighting a tendency to engage in riskier behavior.
Risk-Taking in Virtual Reality
In the second experiment, men navigated a virtual plank bridge while receiving instructions from either a high-pitched or low-pitched female voice.
Again, those guided by the high-pitched voice crossed the bridge more quickly and took greater risks compared to those who heard the lower-pitched voice.
Rethinking Voice Design in Sat Navs
The researchers concluded that incorporating high-pitched, feminine voices into navigation systems might inadvertently compromise driving safety. They recommend considering less feminine voices in car voice interactions to reduce risky driving behaviors
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