Deeper Voices Indicate Signs of Leadership
Recent research suggests that voters are more likely to back candidates with lower voices, why?… because they come across as more dominant and authoritative. In previous studys researchers have found that deep voices are linked to high levels of the manly stuff we call testosterone along with the new reasearch which reveals how perceptions formed by our ancestors still hold true today.
One of the researchers - Cara Tigue from the University of Canada, quotes: “We’re looking at men’s low voice-pitch as a cue to dominance, which is related to leadership. Throughout our evolutionary history, it would have been important for our ancestors to pay attention to cues to good leadership, because group leaders affected a person’s ability to survive and reproduce within a group. We’re looking at it in a present-day, 21st-century context.”
Researchers played the recordings of lower and higher pitched versions of different voices for volunteers and asked them to rate their perceptions of the speakers’ attractiveness, honesty, intelligence, leadership potential, and dominance. Whilst also asking volunteers what version of the voice they would prefer to back both in peacetime and wartime. In all cases the volunteers chose the voices with a deeper pitch.
Cara Tigue also quoted: “One of the implications of our research is that voters may take it into account when making voting decisions.”
Whilst earlier research also looked at US presidential candidates between the 1960’s and the year 2000, in which they found that in all elections, the candidate with the deepest voice had won the vote.
The volunteers also considered the men with the deeper pitched voices to be both more attractive and more dominant, but the new research shows that it’s the perception of dominance that has a greater influence on voting.
The Supervisor of the research - Professor David Feinberg quoted: “People think we want to vote for men with lower-pitched voices because they’re more attractive, but it’s because people perceive them as better leaders and more dominant, not just because they’re attractive.”
