Social Eavesdropping: Can You Hear the Emotionality in a “Hello” That Is Not Meant for You?

The study examined third-party listeners’ ability to detect the Hellos spoken to prevalidated happy, neutral, and sad facial expressions. The average detection accuracies from the happy and sad (HS), happy and neutral (HN), and sad and neutral (SN) listening tests followed the average vocal pitch differences between the two sets of Hellos in each of the tests; HS and HN detection accuracies were above chance reflecting the significant pitch differences between the respective Hellos. The SN detection accuracy was at chance reflecting the lack of pitch difference between sad and neutral Hellos. As expected, the SN detection accuracy positively correlated with theory of mind; participating in these tests has been likened to the act of eavesdropping, which has been discussed from an evolutionary perspective. An unexpected negative correlation between the HS detection accuracy and the empathy quotient has been discussed with respect to autism research on empathy and pitch discrimination.