"How to Explore Biases in Speech Emotion AI with Users?" A Speech-Emotion-Acting Study Exploring Age and Language Biases

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Main Authors: Borre, Josephine Beatrice Skovbo, Wold, Malene Gorm, Rasmussen, Sara Kjær, Aslan, Ilhan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Borre, Josephine Beatrice Skovbo
Wold, Malene Gorm
Rasmussen, Sara Kjær
Aslan, Ilhan
author_facet Borre, Josephine Beatrice Skovbo
Wold, Malene Gorm
Rasmussen, Sara Kjær
Aslan, Ilhan
contents This study explores how age and language shape the deliberate vocal expression of emotion, addressing underexplored user groups, Teenagers (N = 12) and Adults 55+ (N = 12), within speech emotion recognition (SER). While most SER systems are trained on spontaneous, monolingual English data, our research evaluates how such models interpret intentionally performed emotional speech across age groups and languages (Danish and English). To support this, we developed a novel experimental paradigm combining a custom user interface with a backend for real-time SER prediction and data logging. Participants were prompted to hit visual targets in valence-arousal space by deliberately expressing four emotion targets. While limitations include some reliance on self-managed voice recordings and inconsistent task execution, the results suggest contrary to expectations, no significant differences between language or age groups, and a degree of cross-linguistic and age robustness in model interpretation. Though some limitations in high-arousal emotion recognition were evident. Our qualitative findings highlight the need to move beyond system-centered accuracy metrics and embrace more inclusive, human-centered SER models. By framing emotional expression as a goal-directed act and logging the real-time gap between human intent and machine interpretation, we expose the risks of affective misalignment.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_12580
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle "How to Explore Biases in Speech Emotion AI with Users?" A Speech-Emotion-Acting Study Exploring Age and Language Biases
Borre, Josephine Beatrice Skovbo
Wold, Malene Gorm
Rasmussen, Sara Kjær
Aslan, Ilhan
Human-Computer Interaction
This study explores how age and language shape the deliberate vocal expression of emotion, addressing underexplored user groups, Teenagers (N = 12) and Adults 55+ (N = 12), within speech emotion recognition (SER). While most SER systems are trained on spontaneous, monolingual English data, our research evaluates how such models interpret intentionally performed emotional speech across age groups and languages (Danish and English). To support this, we developed a novel experimental paradigm combining a custom user interface with a backend for real-time SER prediction and data logging. Participants were prompted to hit visual targets in valence-arousal space by deliberately expressing four emotion targets. While limitations include some reliance on self-managed voice recordings and inconsistent task execution, the results suggest contrary to expectations, no significant differences between language or age groups, and a degree of cross-linguistic and age robustness in model interpretation. Though some limitations in high-arousal emotion recognition were evident. Our qualitative findings highlight the need to move beyond system-centered accuracy metrics and embrace more inclusive, human-centered SER models. By framing emotional expression as a goal-directed act and logging the real-time gap between human intent and machine interpretation, we expose the risks of affective misalignment.
title "How to Explore Biases in Speech Emotion AI with Users?" A Speech-Emotion-Acting Study Exploring Age and Language Biases
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12580