Sad or angry? Complaining sounds different across cultures

Complaining is universal. Whether it’s about the weather, a late bus, or a frustrating coworker, venting is part of being human. But how we complain – and what our voices reveal when we do it – can vary more than you might think.

New research from a team of scientists in Switzerland and Canada shows that complaining has a recognizable tone of voice. Even more interesting, the emotional signals behind that tone shift depending on cultural background.

Vocal expressions of complaints

The study, led by researchers from the University of Geneva, sheds light on how vocal expressions of complaints differ between French and Québécois speakers.

Dr. Maël Mauchand is a neuroscientist at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences at the University of Geneva.

“Complaining is differentiated from neutral speech by changes in vocal expression. Complainers tend to change their intonation, pitch, rhythm, and emphasis, making them sound more emotive and expressive,” said Dr. Mauchand.

“We show that complaining strategies show specific variations across two francophone cultures, with Québécois sounding more angry or surprised and French speakers sounding sadder.”

Complaining across cultures

To explore how complaints differ between cultures, researchers recorded eight native speakers – four from France and four from Quebec.

The participants read 84 simple sentences in both a neutral and complaining tone. The content of the sentences stayed the same; only the vocal delivery changed.

Next, 40 listeners living in Quebec, including both native Québécois and individuals who grew up in France, were asked to assess the emotional tone of selected recordings. They rated them across six emotional categories: happy, sad, angry, surprised, fearful, and disgusted.

“Complaining strategies seem consistent towards defining a general ‘complaining tone of voice,’ with a few specific cultural variations,” noted Dr. Mauchand.

French speakers tended to use a higher pitch. Québécois speakers, meanwhile, showed more variation in pitch – making their tone more dynamic and emotionally charged.

Anger versus sadness

Complaining, at its core, is a way to relive or express a negative experience. That means it’s often full of emotion – and those emotions came through loud and clear in the study.

Listeners judged Québécois speakers as sounding angrier, more surprised, and more disgusted. French speakers, by contrast, were consistently rated as sounding sadder.

“There may be cultural norms on what a complaint sounds like in France or in Quebec, influenced by their use,” said Dr. Mauchand.

“The French are said to complain quite often – if complaining is frequent and ritualized, it makes sense that complainers try to make their voice sound less aggressive, for example by using higher intonation and sounding more sad than angry.”

In Quebec, expressiveness is often more pronounced in everyday speech. That might be why high-energy emotions like anger and surprise come through more strongly in complaints.

“There may be social conventions on what a complaint sounds like in a particular culture, which can be learned as we grow up,” noted Dr. Mauchand. “How we complain is a subtle interplay between emotion, social context, and cultural display rules.”

Understanding the tone of complaints

The researchers acknowledged that their sample was small – only eight speakers and two cultural groups. This means that the results might not apply universally. Still, the findings offer a useful lens for thinking about emotional communication.

The study also raises bigger questions: How do complaints function in different cultures? How often do people complain? And how are those complaints received by others?

The answers could be useful far beyond linguistics. Understanding the tone of complaints could help in fields like communication disorders, psychotherapy, and emotional training.

“As an immediate application, it could encourage people to be more attentive,” said Dr. Mauchand. “Not just to what people say, but how they say it – and what it implies.”

Complaining as emotional communication

Complaining isn’t just venting – it’s a way of expressing emotion. Whether it’s anger, sadness, frustration, or even surprise, the tone we use when complaining tells others how we feel, often more clearly than the words themselves.

That’s why these subtle vocal shifts matter. A sad-sounding complaint might invite comfort. An angry-sounding one could trigger defensiveness. How we sound when complaining can influence how others react, whether they feel empathy, annoyance, or something in between.

This is especially important in multicultural environments where people may interpret emotional tones differently. What sounds like a mild complaint to someone from France might come across as intense or aggressive to someone from Quebec – and vice versa.

Understanding these patterns could help improve cross-cultural communication, emotional awareness, and even professional training in areas like counseling, mediation, or caregiving.

As the study suggests, there’s more going on in complaining than meets the ear. And being aware of that might change how we listen – and how we speak – when emotions run high.

The full study was published in the journal Frontiers in Communication.

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