嗓音低沉者更具“領導風範”

Men with deep voices are seen as better leaders, research shows.

Voters are more likely to back candidates with lower voices suggesting perceptions formed by our ancestors still hold true today.

A low voice is seen as dominant and the sign of a good leader, says Cara Tigue from McMaster university in Canada.

Miss Tigue said: "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. "

The study, published in journal Evolution and Human Behavior, saw researchers manipulate archive recordings of US presidents, creating lower and higher pitched versions of each voice.

They played the recordings for test subjects and asked them to rate their perceptions of the speakers' attractiveness, leadership potential, honesty, intelligence and dominance.

They also asked subjects which version of the voice they would prefer to vote for, both in peacetime and wartime.

Though the motivations were different, in all cases they preferred candidates with lower-pitched voices.

Miss Tigue added: "One of the implications of our research is that voters may take it into account when making voting decisions."

Earlier research that looked at US presidential candidates between 1960 and 2000 found that in all eight elections, the candidate with the lower voice had won the popular vote.

And "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher had elocution lessons to make her voice less shrill.據英國《每日郵報》11月14日報道，一項研究表明嗓音低沉的人擁有更好的領導力。

選民們更傾向於支持嗓音聲音低沉的候選人——這一前人形成的觀念在今天仍然適用。

來自加拿大麥克馬斯特大學的卡拉-提格稱，嗓音低沉的人擁有主導優勢，有可能成爲優秀的領導者。

提格女士說：“我們正着眼於找出人們聲音的低沉度和與與領導力相關的支配能力之間的關係。”

“在我們的整個進化史中，我們的祖先比較看重優秀的領導力。因爲集體的領導者會影響集體內部個人的生存和繁衍能力。”

在這份發表在《進化與人類行爲》上的研究中，研究人員將美國總統的存檔錄音處理成了高低不同的兩個版本。他

們爲試驗對象播放了錄音，並要求試驗者對演講者的吸引力、領導潛能、真誠度、智慧以及支配力進行評估。

他們還詢問試驗者在和平時期和戰時更願意爲哪個版本的聲音投票。

儘管動機不同，但是無論是在和平時期還是戰時，他們都更傾向於聲音低沉的候選人。

提格女士補充道：“我們研究的意義之一就是揭示選民在做決定投票時或許會把候選人的聲音條件考慮進去。

早期的研究顯示在1996年至2000年之間的八次美國總統大選中，嗓音低沉的候選人更受歡迎。

就連有“鐵娘子”之稱的撒切爾夫人也曾接受過朗誦課程，使自己的聲音不那麼尖銳。