嗓音低沉者更具“领导风范”

　　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.