Klofstad and his colleagues at Duke University in North Carolina recorded 17 women and 10 men saying, “I urge you to vote for me this November.” They then modified the recordings to create one high-pitched version of each voice and one low-pitched version.
Next, the researchers had a sample of 83 undergraduates listen to the women’s recordings and choose which they would vote for out of each high-pitched and low-pitched pair. Another 89 students did the same for the male recordings. In a final experiment, 210 participants listened to each recording and rated which out of each pitch pair sounded stronger and more trustworthy and competent.
The results revealed that both men and women who made their election pitches in, well, lower pitches were more likely to win — participants voted for the lower-pitched of the pairs at rates higher than chance. The proportion of votes for lower-pitched candidates hovered around 60 percent, the researchers reported today (March 13) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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