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.




据英国《每日邮报》11月14日报道，一项研究表明嗓音低沉的人拥有更好的领导力。
选民们更倾向于支持嗓音声音低沉的候选人--这一前人形成的观念在今天仍然适用。

来自加拿大麦克马斯特大学的卡拉-提格称，嗓音低沉的人拥有主导优势，有可能成为优秀的领导者。
提格女士说："我们正着眼于找出人们声音的低沉度和与与领导力相关的支配能力之间的关系。"

"在我们的整个进化史中，我们的祖先比较看重优秀的领导力。因为集体的领导者会影响集体内部个人的生存和繁衍能力。"

在这份发表在《进化与人类行为》上的研究中，研究人员将美国总统的存档录音处理成了高低不同的两个版本。他

们为试验对象播放了录音，并要求试验者对演讲者的吸引力、领导潜能、真诚度、智慧以及支配力进行评估。

他们还询问试验者在和平时期和战时更愿意为哪个版本的声音投票。

尽管动机不同，但是无论是在和平时期还是战时，他们都更倾向于声音低沉的候选人。
提格女士补充道："我们研究的意义之一就是揭示选民在做决定投票时或许会把候选人的声音条件考虑进去。

早期的研究显示在1996年至2000年之间的八次美国总统大选中，嗓音低沉的候选人更受欢迎。

就连有"铁娘子"之称的撒切尔夫人也曾接受过朗诵课程，使自己的声音不那么尖锐。

• research [ri´sə:tʃ] n.&vi.调查；探究；研究 (初中英语单词)
• ability [ə´biliti] n.(办事)能力；才干 (初中英语单词)
• survive [sə´vaiv] vt.幸存；残存 (初中英语单词)
• journal [´dʒə:nəl] n.日记；日报；杂志 (初中英语单词)
• intelligence [in´telidʒəns] n.智力；消息 (初中英语单词)
• account [ə´kaunt] vi.说明 vt.认为 n.帐目 (初中英语单词)
• presidential [,prezi´denʃəl] a.总统的；统辖的 (初中英语单词)
• candidate [´kændideit] n.候选人；投考者 (初中英语单词)
• related [ri´leitid] a.叙述的；有联系的 (高中英语单词)
• leadership [´li:dəʃip] n.领导(能力) (高中英语单词)
• reproduce [,ri:prə´dju:s] v.繁殖；复制；翻版 (高中英语单词)
• behavior [bi´heiviə] n.举止，行为 (高中英语单词)
• potential [pə´tenʃəl] n.&a.潜在的；可能的 (高中英语单词)
• honesty [´ɔnisti] n.诚实，老实 (高中英语单词)
• dominant [´dɔminənt] a.统治的；占优势的 (英语四级单词)
• evolution [,i:və´lu:ʃən] n.进化；发展；发育 (英语四级单词)
• version [´və:ʃən, ´və:rʒən] n.翻译；说明；译本 (英语四级单词)
• affected [ə´fektid] a.做作的；假装的 (英语六级单词)