Team

Dr. phil. Sven Kachel

+49 (0)3641 945 940

sven.kachel [at] uni-jena.de

Research Unit Person Perception
Institute for Psychology
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
Leutragraben 1, Room 18-S07
07743 Jena

Curriculum Vitae

Positions

since 10/2024

since 09/2021

02/2023-09/2024

09/2022-01/2023

09/2021-08/2022

06/2019-08/2021

01/2018-05/2019

04/2018-03/2019

09/2015-03/2018

01/2013-12/2017

10/2009-10/2011

12/2008-01/2011

11/2007-06/2009

05/2006-12/2006

Deputy Professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Psychology (University of Kassel, Germany)

Scholar of the Kone Foundation, and affiliated researcher at the Department of Languages (University of Helsinki, Finland)

Research associate in the DFG research project “Discrimination of job applicants on the basis of their sexual orientation: an experimental research approach” at the Department of Social, Environmental, and Economic Psychology (University Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany)

Parental leave substitute for the Junior Professorship for Social Psychology, Department of Social, Environmental, and Economic Psychology (University Koblenz-Landau, Germany)

Research associate at the Department of Social, Environmental, and Economic Psychology (University Koblenz-Landau, Germany)

PI in the DFG-granted project “Vocal stereotypes towards women and men differing in sexual orientation: A combination of production-related and perceptive approaches” (DFG KA-5005/1-1) at the Department of Social, Environmental, and Economic Psychology (University Koblenz-Landau, Germany)

Research assistant at the Department of Social, Environmental, and Economic Psychology (University Koblenz-Landau, Germany)

Group therapist at a drug-rehab clinic (Weinböhla, Germany)

PhD student and research assistant in the DFG Research Unit Person Perception (Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany) and at the Department of Social, Environmental, and Economic Psychology (University Koblenz-Landau, Germany) in the project “Interactions of visual and auditory information in social perception related to gender and ethnicity” (DFG STE 938/10-2, FOR 1097)

Free lancing at radio station Funkwerk in Erfurt:
Presentation of the kids radio programme Fledermausfunk and the electronic music radio programme Frequenzmodulation

Internship at Podsports (activities in voice coaching and compilation of auditory content on physical trainings)

Research internship and student assistant in the DFG-funded research project “Brain activation during automatic and controlled stimulus processing before and after psychotherapeutic treatment on specific phobia” at the Department of Clinical and Biological Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Student assistant at the Thuringian University and Federal State Library

Education

05/2018-present

07/2016-present

07/2017

02/2013

07/2012

2008-2013

2005-2012

Group therapy training with cognitive behavioral focus at the IVT Dresden (Germany)

Psychotherapy training with cognitive behavioral focus at the IVT Dresden (Germany)

PhD thesis: “Social markers of sexual orientiation and gender in speech and appearance: A combination of producer- and perceiver-centered approaches” (summa cum laude) supervised by Melanie C. Steffens and Adrian P. Simpson

Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Speech Sciences, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany.
B.A. thesis: “Mediale Konstruktion von Homosexualität” [Medial construction of homosexuality]

Diploma in Psychology (equivalent to M.Sc.); Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany
Diploma thesis: “Geschlechterrolle oder sexuelle Identität? Eine phonetisch-psychologische Untersuchung weiblicher Sprechweisen” [Gender role or sexual identity? A phonetic-psychological analysis of female speech], supervised by Melanie C. Steffens and Adrian P. Simpson

Academic studies of Communication (major subject) and Speech Sciences (minor subject) at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Academic studies of Psychology at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (minor subject: German Linguistics)

Main Research Interests

I mainly do research on gender and/or language. By gender, I think about all its different facets, from gender identity and gender-role self-concept, via gender-role stereotypes and norms, to threats to one’s gender identity and discrimination based on gender-related characteristics. I do not necessarily understand gender-related characteristics as naturally given or biologically grounded but as performatively produced and socially constructed. I am particularly curious about sexual orientation. Some of my recent research questions:

  • What are the implications of threats to men’s masculinity (e.g., use of sexist humor)?
  • What are the effects of gender stereotypes (e.g., with regard to hiring a manager)?
  • How is one’s gender experience affected by the use of certain linguistic means?

Regarding language, I am not only interested in language per se on its various levels, for example, how two groups differ in their use of acoustic or morpho-syntactic features. I understand language more broadly as a sign system, namely as any codes that are used to convey information and are therefore charged with meaning. This can be the written image, but also the clothing or the face. Some exemplary research questions:

  • What signals do people use to express social characteristics intentionally or unintentionally?
  • How do other people interpret these signals?
  • Is there a fit between what is meant to be expressed and understood?
  • And what are the implications for shaping social interactions?

Professional Societies

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie [German Psychological Society] (Section: Social Psychology); European Association of Social Psychology; International Association of Language and Social Psychology

Grants and Awards

Third-Party Funding

Non-Competitive Funding

  • 2023 Seed corn capital for the project “Ostracism experiences due to sexual orientation” from the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau Research Fund for grant application (3.000,00€)
  • 2023 Seed corn capital for the project “Gender-inclusive language use” from the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau Research Fund for grant application (3.000,00€)
  • 2023 Funding from the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau Research Fund for participation at INTERSPEECH 2023 (750,00€)
  • 2023 Funding from the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau Research Fund for participation at the Conference of the Social Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society (750,00€)
  • 2022 Funding of the project “Leader: male, female, diverse? – Effects of gender stereotypes on the perception of leadership skills” by the Center of Interdisciplinary Research of University of Koblenz-Landau (4991,00€, together with Claudia Niedlich, Evelyn Bytzek, Gisela Gerlach, & Tanja Rabl)
  • 2021 Funding by the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (4.500,00€)
  • 2020 Start-up financing by University of Koblenz-Landau for supporting young researchers (4.475,14€)
  • 2018 Seed corn capital for DFG application by University of Koblenz-Landau (4.000,00€)

Recognition by the Scientific Community

  • 2023 Gold Open-Science Award of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany
  • 2022 Gold Open-Science Award of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany
  • 2021 Best Peer-Tandem Program for “Implicit communication of sexual orientation via clothing: A mixed methods approach” from the DGPs-section social psychology (750,00€; together with Robert Gruber)
  • 2013 Best Thesis Award of the DGPs-section social psychology (250,00€)

Reviewing for Journals (Selection)

Reviewer for the following journals (selection): Archives of Sexual Behavior, European Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Scientific Reports, Speech Communication

Consulting editor for Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (01-2021-12/2023)

Publications

Papers in Peer-Reviewed Journals

(*shared co-first authorship)

Carcelén Guerrero, A., Uclés, G., Posio, P., & Kachel, S. (in press). CoLaGe: Corpus for the Study of Language and Gender in two varieties of spoken Spanish. Corpora.

*Posio, P., *Kachel, S., & Uclés, G. (2024). Morphosyntactic stereotypes of speakers with different genders and sexual orientations: An experimental investigation. Linguistics, online first. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2022-0143

Büttner, C. M., Rudert, S. C., & Kachel, S. (2024). Ostracism experiences of sexual minorities: Integrating target perspective and perception by others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672241240675

Kachel, S., Bloch, T., Bosson, J. K., Lorenz, L. L., & Steffens, M. C. (2024). Gaining masculine power through guns: The impact of masculinity threat on attitudes towards guns. Frontiers in Psychology, 15:1296261. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1296261 OPEN ACCESS

Kachel, S., Simpson, A. P. & Steffens, M. C. (2024). Speakers’ vocal expression of sexual orientation depends on experimenter gender. Speech Communication, 156, 103023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2023.103023

Gruber, R., Häfner, M. & Kachel, S. (2023). Dressing up social psychology: Empirically investigating the psychological functions of clothing using the example of symbolic protection. British Journal of Social Psychology, Online First. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12700 REGISTERED REPORT, OPEN ACCESS

Kachel, S., Nussbaum, C., & Pöhlmann, M. (2023). Queer events, relationships, and sports: Does topic influence speakers’ acoustic expression of sexual orientation? INTERSPEECH 2023, 4269–4273. https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2023-2087

*Landmann, H., *Kachel, S., Kommerscheidt, L., Lange, F., Richter, I. (2023). Assessing diversity dimensions in environmental psychology: Challenges and recommendations. Umweltpsychologie, 27(1), 8–33.

Niedlich, C., Kachel, S., & Steffens, M. C. (2022). Sexual orientation and hiring: Can individualizing information lead to negative stereotyping of sexual minority group members? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39(1), 40–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X19883902

Kachel, S., Steffens, M.C., & Simpson, A.P. (2020). Gender (conformity) matters: Cross-dimensional and cross-modal associations in sexual orientation perception. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 39(1), 40-66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X19883902

Preuß, S., Ottenstein, C., Steffens, M.C., & Kachel, S. (2020). Using scenarios for measuring the affective and behavioral components of attitudes toward lesbians and gay men: Validation of the SABA-scale. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49, 1645-1669. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01653-7

Kachel, S., Radtke, A., Skuk, V.G., Zäske, R., Simpson, A.P., & Steffens, M.C. (2018). Investigating the common set of acoustic parameters in sexual orientation groups: A voice averaging approach. PLoS ONE, 13(12): e0208686. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208686 OPEN ACCESS

Kachel, S., Simpson, A.P., & Steffens, M.C. (2018). “Do I sound straight?”: Acoustic correlates of actual and perceived sexual orientation and masculinity/femininity in men’s speech. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(7), 1560-1578. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0125

Kachel, S., Simpson, A.P., & Steffens, M.C. (2017). Acoustic correlates of sexual orientation and gender-role self-concept in women’s speech. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 141(6), 4793-2809. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4988684

Kachel, S., Steffens, M.C., & Niedlich, C. (2016). Traditional masculinity and femininity: Validation of a new scale assessing gender roles. Frontiers in Personality and Social Psychology, 7:956. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00956 OPEN ACCESS

Book Chapters

Gruber, R., & Kachel, S. (2023). Dressing through crisis: Examining clothing’s symbolic protection from the psychological consequences of existential threats using the example of the COVID-19 pandemic. In I. Henzler, H. Hues, S. Sonnleitner & U. Wilkens (Eds.), Extended Views. Gesellschafts- und wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf die Covid 19-Pandemie (pp. 105-117). Böhlau.

Steffens, M.C., Niedlich, C., Kachel, S., & Methner, N. (2016). Impression formation of applicants differing in sexual orientation: An attempt to integrate theoretical models and a review of the empirical evidence. In F. Earley (Ed.), Sexual orientation: Perceptions, discrimination and acceptance (pp. 51-80). New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Conference Presentations (Selection)

Talks

Kachel, S., Pöhlmann, M., & Nussbaum, C. (2024, June 12–15). Straighter voice information leads to straighter perceptions: Causal implications for sexual orientation perception using a voice-morphing approach [Accepted Talk]. International Conference on Language and Social Psychology, Tallinn, Estland.

Kachel, S., & Gruber, R. (2023, September 11–13). Beyond hanky codes: Clothing as a marker of sexual orientation in women and men [Talk]. 18th Conference of the Social Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society, Graz, Austria.

Kachel, S., & Nieber, L. (2022, September 23–25). Deine Stimme ist nicht männlich genug! – Eine experimentelle Untersuchung zur sprecherischen Kompensation von Männlichkeits­bedrohung [Your voice is not manly enough! –  An experimental investigation of vocal compensation of masculinity threats; Talk]. Annual Conference of the German Society for Speech Science and Speech Education, Jena, Germany.

Kachel, S., & Gruber, R. (2022, September 18–22). ‘We’re all born naked and the rest is drag’: Investigating the vestimentary communication of gender and sexual orientation [Talk]. 52nd Congress of the German Psychological Society, Hildesheim, Germany.

Posio, P., Kachel, S., & Uclés, G. (2022, June 13–15). Linguistic gender stereotypes and attitudes in Mexico and Spain [Talk]. In P. Posio, S. Kachel, & G. Uclés, Gender, society and language in Latin America: transdisciplinary approaches to constructing and deconstructing gender [Symposium]. 10th Conference of the European Council for Social Research on Latin America, Helsinki, Finland.

Gruber, R., Kachel, S., Häfner, M. (2022, September 18–22). The dressed ape: An Evolutionary psychological investigation of clothing’s (de-)humanizing power [Talk]. 52nd Congress of the German Psychological Society, Hildesheim, Germany.

Kachel, S., Scheffel, D., & Kreysa, H. (2021, March 14–16). “I don’t wanna call you gay but I think you are.” – Investigating the straight response bias by comparing label-based and multisensory approaches based on faces on voices [Talk]. 63rd Conference of Experimental Psychologists, Ulm, Germany.

Kachel, S., Radtke, A., Skuk, V. G., Zäske, R., Simpson, A. P., & Steffens, M. C. (2016, September 18–22). Untersuchung der sexuellen Orientierung mittels Voice Morphing [Investigating sexual orientation using voice morphing; Talk]. 50th Congress of the German Psychological Society, Leipzig, Germany.

Kachel, S., Steffens, M. C., & Simpson, A. P. (2015, September 6–9). ‘Teste deinen Gaydar’ – Beeinflussen Präsentationsmodus und Zielpersonenmerkmale Beurteilungen der sexuellen Orientierung [‘Testing your Gaydar!’ – Do mode and target characteristics influence straight judgments?; Talk]. 15th Conference of the Social Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society, Potsdam, Germany.

Kachel, S. (2013, September, 1–4). Geschlechterrolle oder sexuelle Identität? Eine phonetisch-psychologische Untersuchung weiblicher Sprechweisen [Gender role or sexual identity? A phonetic-psychological investigation of female speech; Invited talk]. 14th Conference of the Social Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society, Hagen, Germany.

Poster Presentations

Kachel, S., Pöhlmann, M., & Nussbaum, T. (2023, August 20–24). Queer events, relationships, and sports: Does topic influence speakers’ acoustic expression of sexual orientation? [Poster presentation]. 24th INTERSPEECH Conference, Dublin, Ireland.

Kachel, S., Gaisbauer, N., Niedlich, S., Gruber, R., & Steffens, M.C. (2023, July 1–4). The intersecting impact of sexual orientation and gender on leadership perception: Investigating the differences between person-related signals [Poster presentation]. General Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology, Krakow, Poland.

Kachel, S., & Nieber, L. (2022, Oktober 6–7). Establishing a critical perspective on phonetic gender research [Poster presentation]. Phonetik & Phonologie 18, Bielefeld, Deutschland.

Kachel, S., Scheffel, D., & Kreysa, H. (2021, June 1). “I don’t wanna call you gay but I think you are.” – Investigating the straight response bias by comparing label-based and multisensory approaches based on faces and voices [Poster presentation]. LGBTIQ-Studies Pre-Conference of the European Association of Social Psychology, Online.

Kachel, S., Ehrke, F., & Preuß, S. (2019, June 21–22). The influence of control beliefs on masculinity threat and homonegative attitudes [Poster presentation]. European Association of Social Psychology RKTS Workshop “Building An LGBT European Social Psychology”, Lisbon, Portugal.

Kachel, S., Radtke, A., Skuk, V. G., Zäske, R., Simpson, A. P., & Steffens, M. C. (2016, September 18–22). Perceiving sexual orientation in the voice – Evidence from averaged voices of straight and LGB speakers [Poster presentation]. 50th Congress of the German Psychological Society, Leipzig, Germany.

Kachel, S., Simpson, A. P., & Steffens, M. C. (2013, September 1-4). Phonetische Parametrisierung von Geschlechterrolle und sexueller Orientierung bei Frauen [Phonetic parameterization of gender role and sexual orientation in women; Poster presentation]. 14th Conference of the Social Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society, Hagen, Germany.

Kachel, S., Simpson, A.P., & Steffens, M.C. (2013, June 13–16). Lesbians don’t speak differently than straight women, but they do speak differently than lesbians [Poster presentation]. Final Conference of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network Language, Cognition, and Gender, Bern, Switzerland.

Kachel, S., Simpson, A. P., & Steffens, M. C. (2013, March 24–27). Phonetic Parametrization of Sexual Orientation and Gender in German [Poster presentation]. 55th Conference of Experimental Psychologists, Vienna, Austria.

Kachel, S. (2012, September 24–27). …und sie sprechen doch nicht tiefer – Eine soziopsychophonetische Untersuchung (nicht-)lesbischer Frauen [And yet they do not speak lower – A sociopsychophonetic study on (non-)lesbian women; Poster presentation]. 48th Congress of the German Psychological Society, Bielefeld, Germany.

Teaching

Seminar on Communication in intergroup contexts (ST 2024, WT 2022/23, WT 2021/22; University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany)

Seminar on Social psychology of conflictive and cooperative relationships (WT 2023/24, WT 2022/23, WT 2020/21; University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany)

Seminar on Gender and sexual diversity in the educational context (WT 2022/23, ST 2020; University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany)

Seminar on Personality psychology of cooperation and conflict (ST 2022; University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany)

Seminar on Conflict prevention and promotion of cooperation (ST 2024, ST 2022, ST 2021; University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany)

Seminar on Gender (ST 2019; University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany)

Seminar on Presentation skills (WT 2013/14; Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany)

Seminar on Fundamentals of rhetoric (WT 2013/14; Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany)

Seminar on Introduction to quantitative data analysis for linguists (ST 2013; Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany)

Thesis Supervision (5 Most Recent Ones)

Lea Lorenz (on-going). Methods for reducing and preventing masculinity threats [PhD thesis]. University of Kaiserslautern-Landau.

Robert Gruber (on-going). Establishing clothing as a social psychological research subject [PhD thesis]. University of Kaiserslautern-Landau.

Sarah Pütz (on-going). Effects of persuasion on charitable giving [Master’s thesis]. University of Kaiserslautern-Landau.

Zerevan Bindal (2024). The influence of gender stereotypes on eating habits and alcohol consumption: An experimental approach [Bachelor’s thesis]. University of Kaiserslautern-Landau.

Leah Nieber (2024). Phonetic research beyond the gender binary: An acoustic analysis [Master’s thesis]. Philipps University Marburg.

I’m offering thesis supervision for bachelor, master, and PhD students.