Believe it or not! Assessing the credibility of voices in dubbed animated films

Abstract The main aim of this study is to determine whether and to what extent the use of celebrities to dub animated characters affects the degree of credibility of the final version. Our hypothesis is that the character’s voice has a major impact on the degree of credibility: the animated voices performed by professional dubbing actors will be more credible than those performed by actors and non-actor celebrities. Results reveal that the dubbing voice has a significant influence on the degree of credibility of the animated character. In fact, voices dubbed by professional dubbers are perceived as the most credible, whilst voices dubbed by non-actor celebrities are perceived as the least credible.