What's a Little Sarcasm Between Friends: Exploring the Sarcastic Tone of Voice

Abstract

Tone of voice has been characterized as a cue to sarcasm. However, researchers have found conflicting evidence regarding the acoustic properties of the sarcastic tone of voice and what social factors may affect their prevalence. The current project was designed to assess whether there is a sarcastic tone of voice employed in naturalistic conversation and if it varies as a function of shared common ground. Participants were recorded in a conversational setting while engaged in tasks designed to elicit sarcasm. Results showed that spontaneous sarcastic statements had more varied pitch, lower mean amplitude, and less varied amplitude, and were spoken more slowly than literal statements that were matched by syllables and stress. In addition, friends marked their sarcasm to a greater degree compared to strangers with regard to mean F0, mean amplitude, and amplitude variability.