Emotional responses of Korean and Chinese women to Hangul phonemes to the gender of an artificial intelligence voice.

Introduction: This study aimed to explore the arousal and valence that people experience in response to Hangul phonemes based on the gender of an AI speaker through comparison with Korean and Chinese cultures. Methods: To achieve this, 42 Hangul phonemes were used, in a combination of three Korean vowels and 14 Korean consonants, to explore cultural differences in arousal, valence, and the six foundational emotions based on the gender of an AI speaker. A total 136 Korean and Chinese women were recruited and randomly assigned to one of two conditions based on voice gender (man or woman). Results and discussion: This study revealed significant differences in arousal levels between Korean and Chinese women when exposed to male voices. Specifically, Chinese women exhibited clear differences in emotional perceptions of male and female voices in response to voiced consonants. These results confirm that arousal and valence may differ with articulation types and vowels due to cultural differences and that voice gender can affect perceived emotions. This principle can be used as evidence for sound symbolism and has practical implications for voice gender and branding in AI applications.