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Quick & curious · Perception

Your voice sounds higher to others than to you.

When you speak, you also hear yourself through the bones of your skull. They carry low tones better – one reason recordings sound so odd.

Studio microphone with a round pop filter in front of a soundproofed wall
Photo: Galak76 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Original

The story behind it

Your voice sounds higher to others than to you.

Your skull conducts low frequencies better than air, so you hear yourself as deeper and fuller. But the sound isn't the only reason many people dislike their recordings: in a 2013 study, people gave their own voice better ratings when they didn't recognise it as their own.

Sources

Every statement in this discovery is backed by one of these sources and was checked before publication.

  1. Wikipedia: Bone conduction (accessed 2026-10-07)
  2. Wikipedia: Voice confrontation (accessed 2026-10-07)

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