嗓音的影響力:嗓音低沉 收入更多

If James Earl Jones were the boss, he would likely make hundreds of thousands a year More than a CEO who sounded like Mike Tyson. Those are the findings of new research by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. The study shows that male CEOs with deeper voices tend to manage larger companies, make more money and stay in their jobs for longer.

如果詹姆斯-瓊斯是老闆的話，他一年的收入可能比像邁克-泰森這樣的CEO要高數十萬美元吧。這是杜克大學福庫商學院最新的研究得出的結論。該研究論文認爲擁有低沉嗓音的男性CEO們更傾向於管理更大的公司，而且他們收入更高，任職更久。

Fuqua professors Bill Mayew and Mohan Venkatachalam, together with U.C. San Diego professor Christopher Parson, got speech samples for 792 CEOs from the Standard and Poor’s 1500 stock index. They analyzed the samples to calculate vocal pitch and then cross referenced the pitch levels with data on the total assets managed by the CEO, the CEOs’ compensation and how long the bosses had been in their jobs.

任職於福庫商學院的教授比爾-梅修和莫罕-萬卡塔查蘭與加州大學聖地亞哥分校的克里斯托弗-帕森教授合作，收集了標準普爾1500指數公司中的792位CEO的演講樣本。他們對樣本進行了分析定義他們的聲調的高低，然後將聲調的高低水平與CEO的管理的公司的總資產、他的收入及任職時間進行了對比分析。

“Our research is one of the first attempts to assess whether voice pitch plays a role in the labor markets of corporate executives,” says Mayew, an associate professor at Fuqua whose specialty is studying management communications during conference calls. To do the voice pitch study, Mayew and his colleagues pulled recordings of CEOs from conference calls and YouTube videos of interviews on CNBC.

“我們的研究首次致力於研究評估聲調在企業高管人力資源市場中是否有作用。”福庫商學院的一位專門研究電話會議中管理層溝通情況的副教授梅修說。爲了做聲調的研究，梅修和他的同事從電話會議和YouTube上面CNBC採訪的視頻中截取這些CEO的錄音。

The analysis showed that CEOs with lower voices manage bigger companies and, as a result, make more money. The researchers got quite specific in their findings, claiming that a decrease in voice pitch of 22.1 hertz, translates to an increase in company size of $440 million in assets. They also found that CEOs with lower-pitched voices earned an average of $187,000 a year more than CEOs with higher-pitched voices. What is 22.1 hertz in the real world? Mayew suggests comparing the pitch of James Earl Jones’s voice with Mike Tyson’s and then measuring about a sixth of the difference between the two.

分析的結果表明擁有較低的聲調的CEO們管理着更大規模的公司，因此，他們的收入相應地也會更高。研究者們從他們的研究中得出了很具體的結論，他們表示當聲調平均每下降22.1赫茲，CEO所在的公司的資產就會多4.4億美元。他們同時也發現嗓音更低沉的CEO比嗓音高的一年多賺187000美元。那麼，在真實世界中，22.1赫茲是什麼程度的呢？梅修表示可以拿詹姆斯-瓊斯和麥克-泰森的聲調做比較，然後取他們之間差異的六分之一來測算。

The CEO study also showed that bosses with lower-pitched voices tend to hold onto their jobs for around five months longer than their higher-pitched counterparts.

這項關於CEO的研究還表明，聲調較低得老闆們比同級別的那些聲調高的任職時間長五個月左右。

The CEO study backs up previous laboratory research showing that voters prefer politicians with deep voices. In a 2012 study, two biologists and a political scientist recorded men and women saying, “I urge you to vote for me this November.” The researchers then edited each recording, making a higher- and lower-pitched version of the original and played them for groups of men and women. The study subjects said they would vote for the candidates with lower-pitched voices, regardless of gender.

這項研究反過來也證實了之前的一項實驗室的研究，這個研究表明選民更願意投票給那些聲調更低沉的政治家。在2012年做的一項研究中，兩個生物學家和一名政治家錄音了男人和女人說的同一句話，“我請求你在今年11月可以投我一票。”然後研究人員對每段錄音進行了編輯，把原始的聲音製作成了音調高的和低的兩個版本，接着放給不同的男性和女性受訪人聽。而研究編碼不管是什麼性別，他們都會投聲音低沉的候選人。

Though the study showed that CEOs with low-pitched voices make more money and last longer in their jobs, Mayew points out that he and his colleagues looked broadly across companies, rather than examining CEOs in particular businesses like high tech. He notes that when the goal of a company is innovation and the CEO takes an active role working with teams, a high-pitched voice may be preferable. “Low voice pitch is a dominant characteristic,” he notes. “In settings where you want people to talk to you, where you’re trying to innovate, a higher-pitched voice might be better because it connotes approachability.”

儘管該研究表明聲音低沉的CEO們收入會更高，而且任職時間會更長，但梅修指出，他和他的同事還對不同的公司進行了廣泛的研究，而不是隻研究了在高科技企業任職的這類特定的CEO們。他表示，當公司的目標定位於創新，而且CEO在和管理團隊的合作中發揮積極地作用時，聲調更低的CEO可能會更受信任。他表示；“低沉的聲調是一種權威特性， 當你希望人們與你談話，而你們正努力地創新時，較高的聲調可能會更好，因爲這會讓人覺得你比較平易近人。