Bad news for anyone who thinks their voicemail sounds nothing like them. That voice in the recording is what everyone else hears. When you listen to yourself talking, the sound waves have to pass through the bones of your skull, not just your ear canals, so it gets muffled and sounds lower pitch than it actually is.

The disconnect between the “you” that you hear in your head and the “you” the rest of the world hears makes most of us feel self-conscious. It’s similar to the kind of reaction you have after seeing a photo of yourself that looks different from the person you see in the mirror. If you’re one of the few people who love the sound of their voice in recordings, you may have higher self-esteem.

(h/t The Science of Us)