'Deep-voiced' candidates have better chances of winning polls

Candidates with deep or low pitched voice have better chances winning polls as they can influence the voters, researchers have claimed in two new studies.

Casey Klofsta of the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences said that their analyses of both real-life elections and data from experiments show that candidates with lower-pitched voices are generally more successful at the polls

The first study shows that candidates who ran in the 2012 U.S. House elections and had lower voices were more likely to win their elections.

While facing male opponents, candidates with lower voices won a larger vote share. But, when facing female opponents, candidates with higher voices were more successful and particularly so in the case of male candidates.

Klofstad said that as individuals with lower voices have higher levels of testosterone, and as testosterone correlates with physical and social aggressiveness, it could be that male candidates with lower voices are perceived as too aggressive when paired against a female opponent.

In the second experiment study participants listened to pairs of recorded voices that had been manipulated to vary only in pitch. The participants were then asked which voice of each pair was stronger, more competent, older, and which voice they would vote for.

The results of the experiment showed that the preference for leaders with lower-pitched voices correlates with the perception that speakers with lower voices are stronger, more competent, and older, but the influence of perception of age on vote choice is the weakest of the three.

Klofstad said that these findings added to their understanding of why voters prefer leaders with lower voices.

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The first study is published in the journal PLOS ONE.