Recently, gender-ambiguous (nonbinary) voices have been added to voice assistants to combat gender stereotypes and foster inclusion. However, if people react negatively to such voices, these laudable efforts may be counterproductive. In five preregistered studies ( N = 3,684 adult participants) we found that people do react negatively, rating products described by narrators with gender-ambiguous voices less favorably than when they are described by clearly male or female narrators. The voices create a feeling of unease, or social disfluency, that affects evaluations of the products being described. These effects are best explained by low familiarity with voices that sound ambiguous. Thus, initial negative reactions can be overcome with more exposure.

中文翻译：

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性别模糊的声音和社会不和谐

最近，语音助手中添加了性别模糊（非二元）声音，以消除性别刻板印象并促进包容性。然而，如果人们对这些声音做出消极反应，这些值得称赞的努力可能会适得其反。在五项预先注册的研究中（N = 3,684 名成年参与者），我们发现人们确实做出了负面反应，对性别模糊声音的叙述者描述的产品的评价不如对明显男性或女性叙述者描述的产品的评价低。这些声音会产生一种不安或社会不和谐的感觉，从而影响对所描述产品的评价。这些效应最好的解释是，人们对听起来模棱两可的声音不太熟悉。因此，通过更多的接触可以克服最初的负面反应。