In the 1960 US presidential race, John Kennedy looked strong and radiant, while Richard Nixon was recovering from illness and looking pale. Kennedy appeared better and more in command, but Nixon's voice was deeper and more measured. Polls showed that those who watched the televised debate rated Kennedy as the winner, while those who only heard it on the radio, preferred Nixon.
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Early in her career, Margaret Thatcher was an ambitious, rising politician, but she had a problem. People thought she had a shrill voice that attracted the whiny housewife label. To overcome that, she hired a voice coach. It's a mark of her determination that she was able to transform her voice into one that helped shape her image.
One claim is that she'd lowered her pitch by 46Hz, which is quite a lot. Others say that it wasn't so much the pitch of her voice, but the way she used it. On a 1961 recording, Thatcher's voice can be described as modest, gentle, civilised and restrained.
Margaret Thatcher's battle with stereotypes started back in the 1970s, but the world changes slowly. In 2007 when Hillary Clinton was campaigning in the US presidential election, one pundit observed that men in Iowa were picking Barack Obama over Clinton 'because of her nagging voice'. When Obama spoke, men heard 'Take off for the future'. When Clinton spoke, they heard 'Take out the garbage'.
Researchers analysed the speed, pitch and fluency of telemarketers to compare their success. Surprisingly, telemarketers with slightly less animated voices did better. And, as politicians have learned, deeper voices do better, though it was more important for male than female speakers.
Another study found that men with lower voices were more likely to run larger firms. A 1.4 per cent increase in the size of the firm was associated with 1 per cent drop in pitch. And women? They were excluded because there weren't enough of them serving as CEOs. Perhaps there weren't enough Margaret Thatchers.
It's not just CEOs and telemarketers who are affected. A European study looked at what happens to the pitch of men and women's voices during speed dating. Women raised their pitch when they met potential mates, but lowered their pitch when talking to the men they desired most. Meanwhile, men also lowered their voice around women they liked, and preferred women with deeper voices.
Rightly or wrongly, speakers with a deep voice are considered more authoritative. Surely, you'd think, what should matter is what is said more than how it's said, but that's psychology and more proof that humans aren't logical. Most likely it's an evolutionary hangover, where a deep voice can be a cue to the health of a person. It's yet another example of a simplistic way we wrap up a complicated question.
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