Human voices communicating trustworthy intent: A demographically diverse speech audio dataset

Abstract The multi-disciplinary field of voice perception and trustworthiness lacks accessible and diverse speech audio datasets representing diverse speaker demographics, including age, ethnicity, and sex. Existing datasets primarily feature white, younger adult speakers, limiting generalisability....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Constantina Maltezou-Papastylianou, Reinhold Scherer, Silke Paulmann
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-05-01
Series:Scientific Data
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05267-3
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850105473719599104
author Constantina Maltezou-Papastylianou
Reinhold Scherer
Silke Paulmann
author_facet Constantina Maltezou-Papastylianou
Reinhold Scherer
Silke Paulmann
author_sort Constantina Maltezou-Papastylianou
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The multi-disciplinary field of voice perception and trustworthiness lacks accessible and diverse speech audio datasets representing diverse speaker demographics, including age, ethnicity, and sex. Existing datasets primarily feature white, younger adult speakers, limiting generalisability. This paper introduces a novel open-access speech audio dataset with 1,152 utterances from 96 untrained speakers, across white, black and south Asian backgrounds, divided into younger (N = 60, ages 18–45) and older (N = 36, ages 60+) adults. Each speaker recorded both, their natural speech patterns (i.e. “neutral” or no intent), and their attempt to convey their trustworthy intent as they perceive it during speech production. Our dataset is described and evaluated through classification methods between neutral and trustworthy speech. Specifically, extracted acoustic and voice quality features were analysed using linear and non-linear classification models, achieving accuracies of around 70%. This dataset aims to close a crucial gap in the existing literature and provide additional research opportunities that can contribute to the generalisability and applicability of future research results in this field.
format Article
id doaj-art-71ec7b56c7dc46b0b3d7e0b64d0aa511
institution OA Journals
issn 2052-4463
language English
publishDate 2025-05-01
publisher Nature Portfolio
record_format Article
series Scientific Data
spelling doaj-art-71ec7b56c7dc46b0b3d7e0b64d0aa5112025-08-20T02:39:04ZengNature PortfolioScientific Data2052-44632025-05-0112111110.1038/s41597-025-05267-3Human voices communicating trustworthy intent: A demographically diverse speech audio datasetConstantina Maltezou-Papastylianou0Reinhold Scherer1Silke Paulmann2Department of Psychology and Centre for Brain Science, University of EssexBrain-Computer Interfaces and Neural Engineering Laboratory, School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of EssexDepartment of Psychology and Centre for Brain Science, University of EssexAbstract The multi-disciplinary field of voice perception and trustworthiness lacks accessible and diverse speech audio datasets representing diverse speaker demographics, including age, ethnicity, and sex. Existing datasets primarily feature white, younger adult speakers, limiting generalisability. This paper introduces a novel open-access speech audio dataset with 1,152 utterances from 96 untrained speakers, across white, black and south Asian backgrounds, divided into younger (N = 60, ages 18–45) and older (N = 36, ages 60+) adults. Each speaker recorded both, their natural speech patterns (i.e. “neutral” or no intent), and their attempt to convey their trustworthy intent as they perceive it during speech production. Our dataset is described and evaluated through classification methods between neutral and trustworthy speech. Specifically, extracted acoustic and voice quality features were analysed using linear and non-linear classification models, achieving accuracies of around 70%. This dataset aims to close a crucial gap in the existing literature and provide additional research opportunities that can contribute to the generalisability and applicability of future research results in this field.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05267-3
spellingShingle Constantina Maltezou-Papastylianou
Reinhold Scherer
Silke Paulmann
Human voices communicating trustworthy intent: A demographically diverse speech audio dataset
Scientific Data
title Human voices communicating trustworthy intent: A demographically diverse speech audio dataset
title_full Human voices communicating trustworthy intent: A demographically diverse speech audio dataset
title_fullStr Human voices communicating trustworthy intent: A demographically diverse speech audio dataset
title_full_unstemmed Human voices communicating trustworthy intent: A demographically diverse speech audio dataset
title_short Human voices communicating trustworthy intent: A demographically diverse speech audio dataset
title_sort human voices communicating trustworthy intent a demographically diverse speech audio dataset
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05267-3
work_keys_str_mv AT constantinamaltezoupapastylianou humanvoicescommunicatingtrustworthyintentademographicallydiversespeechaudiodataset
AT reinholdscherer humanvoicescommunicatingtrustworthyintentademographicallydiversespeechaudiodataset
AT silkepaulmann humanvoicescommunicatingtrustworthyintentademographicallydiversespeechaudiodataset