Vocalic qualities of Disney villains
Animated Disney movies often try to remove the idea of race and bias from their character choices, but what about movies in which there are no human or live-action characters? The following study explores whether the choices made by actors and directors show implicit bias against African American males through vocalics in nonhuman, animated Disney characters. Researchers chose eleven Disney movies in which there were no human characters and analyzed the vocalics. Researchers measured pitch, rate of speech, and volume. The results were compared to past research in order to determine whether or not the vocalic qualities matched male African American speech. The results were inconclusive as to whether implicit bias plays a role in vocalic choices made for Disney villains. However, the results determined that villains take on many vocalic characteristics of men and do not follow the average American vernacular speech.
COMM 430, Nonverbal Communication
Doyle Srader
L203
1:30 – 2 PM