Why are Boeing planes equipped with a female computer voice and not a male?
It could be that the female voice is perceived as being a gentle suggestion, as opposed to an order. Since most pilots are still male, it allows the man to feel that he is still the one in control of the situation and is not being ordered around by the computer. The following is a c/p of an article about this very thing. It makes a lot of sense to me, though the findings tend to contradict themselves. See what you think: “Whatever the comparison, people were unhappy with an automated male voice telling them how to use a new pedestrian crossing at a downtown Santa Rosa intersection. The question is: Will they be happier with a woman giving those orders? City officials hope so after complaints prompted the switch at Fourth and D streets. Now when people arrive at the intersection, a woman’s voice tells them when to wait and when the walk sign is on. She even throws the word “please” in there. “It doesn’t make the hair on the back of your neck stand up as much as the male voice did,” said
I fly on a variation of a Boeing aircraft that uses the following message in a female voice: “Altitude” (when 1,000 feet above or below the desired altitude) And the following messages in a male voice: “Terrain, terrain” “Pull up, pull up” “Caution” I would have to agree that the soothing female tone is for those calls that are reminders or things to take note of but not directly focus your attention on… conversely, the male voice is more directive in nature, requiring some form of immediate actions on the part of the pilot. It wouldn’t surprise me if Boeing has done extensive research on the reaction of pilots to each of the audible calls, and chose the voice that worked best based on the results of the studies.
