Women with deep voices are more likely to be chosen as leaders

(Both women and men prefer female leaders with a lower voice than those with high voices, even in traditional female leadership positions, according to a new study. know.

When selected between a high-pitched or low-pitch candidate for a parent association or a member of the school board, people often choose people with lower pitches. This study is detailed online in PLoS One.

Researchers used hypothetical candidates and therefore could not say how many candidates were actually assessed by voice, but the results showed that the height of the voice could be one of the factors. that people use to evaluate candidates, co-author Casey Klofstad, a political scientist at the University of Miami said.

'Physiological characteristics determine the pitch of our voice , ' Klofstad said. "It's interesting when your physiology, a trait that may or may not be related to your leadership, helps you to get a leadership position."

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton

Often, people use voice pitch as a suggestion of personal characteristics, Klofstad told LiveScience.'Women with high voices are considered sexually attractive, while men with deep voices are considered strong, attractive and good social relations , ' he said. 'Taking that idea a step further, a woman with a deeper voice can be assumed to have more masculine characteristics, such as domination and power.'

In a study published earlier this year, Klofstad and his team found that both women and men liked low-profile candidates for political offices. But they wonder if this priority will happen to positions like the president of the parent association or the school board member.

"Leadership positions that leaders relate to care and welfare of families and children, are often led by women ," Klofstad told LiveScience.

To find out, Klofstad and his colleagues asked a group of 71 college students to vote on members of the school board from 10 female couples and 10 pairs of male candidates, only through hearing voices. their. These couples will say only one sentence, "I hope you vote this November." (For each pair, voters had to decide between two versions of an identical voice, in which the same voice was manipulated to have a higher or lower pitch).

Later, the researchers applied the same method to the experiment to select the candidate for the parent association president.

About three-quarters of the time, both men and women like female candidates with deeper voices. About 60% of the time, men prefer men with a more masculine voice, while women do not give any preference to the pitch of the men 's voice.

The results show that even for traditional power positions led by women, people tend to prefer women with more masculine, less shrill voices. Female leaders such as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and minority female leaders such as Nancy Pelosi have a slightly deeper voice, and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has practiced vocals at the start of his political career to avoid being considered "deafening and hissing" Klofstad said.

As a follower, Klofstad and his colleagues wanted to continue studying to find out if this priority took place in practice.

'If so, politicians should undergo vocal training before campaigning,' Klofstad said.