According to a research paper published in the Proceedings of Interspeech,
the journal of the International Speech Communication Association, a new
computer algorithm can tell how likely you are to divorce your spouse…
from the tone of your voice.
In fact, the algorithm — which was correct 79% of the time —
was more accurate than session notes provided by therapists, when predicting
marital success of couples with serious relationship issues. Invented
by University of Southern California researchers, the algorithm was based
on hundreds of conversations from 134 couples taken during marriage counseling
sessions over two years.
The algorithm broke the conversations down, using speech processing technology,
into its acoustic characteristics - volume, pitch, intensity, jitter and
shimmer, which can measure whether someone's voice is shaking or warbling,
perhaps due to emotion. These features were then tracked across a single
therapy session, as well as across multiple sessions to model the pattern
of emotional changes that couples go through.
"What you say is not the only thing that matters; it's very important
how you say it. Our study confirms that it holds for a couple's relationship
as well," USC researcher MD Nasir said.
For more:
Voice tone can predict your divorce risk (Times of India)
Image via Wikimedia Commons