Sounds Like A Winner

The human pitch affects how speakers are perceived, affecting how we select and perceive our leaders. In animals, acoustic properties predicts traits like size and strength. These vocalizations cannot be exagerated or faked, because they are directly related to physiological or physical properties of the caller. Vocal signals influence the behavior of human receivers, where the human voice pitch is extremely sexually dimorphic. This influences on who we perceive as more attractive, physically stronger, and “socially”dominant. For example, men with lower pitched voices are perceived to be more attractive, while lower pitched female voices are perceived to be socially dominant.  The study aims to examine how the human voice pitch influences how humans select our leaders.

In this experiment, they recorded 17 women and 10 males saying “I urge you to vote for me this November.” Each recording was manipulated digitally to yield a higher and lower pitched version of each voice. Subjects listened to each pair of female voices through headphones connected to a computer, and then choose who they would rather vote for. The subjects then answered a questionnaire about themselves to assses the demographic diversity of the subjects.

Results from the female candidate election showed that both men and women voted more frequently for lower pitched female voices. Where higher pitched females are more attractive, the results suggest that both men and women find women with lower pitched voices more competent, stronger, and trustworthy. The same can be said for the male candidate election, where men and women voted more frequently for lower pitched male candidates.

In conclusion, they found that subjects voted for the lower pitched presidential voice at a rate greater than chance, suggesting that lower pitched voices have greater integrity and physical prowess. These are attributes that are correlated with perceptions of leadership capacity. If you possess this attribute, it can enchance your chances of winning an election.

Klofstad, Casey A., et al. “Sounds Like a Winner: Voice Pitch Influences Perception of Leadership Capacity.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 14 Mar. 2012, doi:10.2139/ssrn.1954756.