Politicians’ Voices May Be Telling

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – As if politicians don’t have enough tricks to try and get us to vote for them, soon they will be armed with a study reported at the Acoustical Society of America meeting.

What they found is that voice characteristics can impact what people think of politicians.

According to the research, leaders who are perceived as dominant demonstrate different voice characteristics than those who seem benevolent.

According to the UCLA scientists, listeners’ perceptions of leaders’ voices seemed to depend on range of pitch and voice frequency.

Wider range of pitch and lower frequency left a more threatening impression, while leaders with narrow range of pitch and higher frequency were perceived as calmer and more sincere.

By the way…it does not seem to matter what languages are spoken. The impact is the same.