My interest in the power of our voices was sparked a few months ago when I read about how Margaret Thatcher altered her voice over the years to sound less high-pitched. Similarly, the Queen made changes to her voice over time. More recently, Elizabeth Holmes has been reported to have potentially lowered her voice pitch. This made me wonder: why are women choosing to lower their voices?
Your voice is a blend of genetic factors, like the length of your neck, and learned behaviors, such as regional accents. Just like your face, your voice is unique, characterized by its intensity, pitch, tone, and nasality. While these aspects are straightforward, things become complex when we start judging others based on their voice.
Professor Carolyn McGettigan, an expert in vocal communication, explains that we often adopt different vocal personas. She mentioned, “I can adjust my pitch and intonation. If I wanted to, I could have adopted an English accent when I moved to mainland UK to fit in more.” This highlights how people use their voices to portray different versions of themselves, combining their physiological traits with their vocal choices. The way we use our voices can significantly impact how others perceive us.
During the 2012 U.S. House of Representatives election, researchers in South Florida examined the voices of nearly 800 candidates. They aimed to determine if voice pitch influenced election outcomes. Pitch, which refers to the highness or lowness of a voice, plays a crucial role in how we judge others. Interestingly, men generally speak an octave lower than women.
The study revealed that candidates with lower-pitched voices, regardless of gender, were more likely to win elections. Another study found that people preferred the lower-pitched voices of past U.S. presidents, associating them with greater integrity and physical strength. This suggests that pitch can influence popularity, but does it reflect competence?
In the animal kingdom, vocal sounds often signal size and strength, indicating competence. However, in humans, a low-pitched voice isn’t directly linked to physical size. Despite this, we tend to find men with lower-pitched voices more attractive and are more likely to elect leaders with deeper voices.
Researchers analyzed the voices of Members of the 109th U.S. Congress and their effectiveness in politics, finding no correlation between voice pitch and leadership ability. This suggests that while pitch may influence popularity, it doesn’t necessarily indicate competence.
In South Australia, researchers discovered that the average pitch of women’s voices has decreased by 23 Hz over the past 50 years. They speculate that women have adopted deeper tones to project authority and dominance in the workplace. This trend is not limited to Australia; women’s voices have also deepened in Canada, the U.S., and Sweden since the 1950s.
It’s intriguing how the belief that lower-pitched voices are more competent has led generations to lower their voices. Next time you listen to an interview, speech, or presentation, pay attention to the words being spoken, as the pitch may not always tell the whole story.
Record your voice reading a short passage and analyze its pitch, tone, and intensity using audio software. Compare your findings with classmates to understand the diversity of vocal characteristics. Discuss how these elements might influence perceptions in different contexts.
Engage in a debate where you adopt different vocal personas, such as varying pitch and accents. Reflect on how these changes affect your persuasiveness and the audience’s perception of your arguments. Consider the implications of voice modulation in professional settings.
Research a historical figure known for their distinctive voice, such as Margaret Thatcher or Martin Luther King Jr. Present your findings on how their vocal characteristics contributed to their public image and effectiveness as leaders.
Write a reflective essay on how your voice represents your identity and how you might alter it in different social or professional situations. Consider the balance between authenticity and adaptability in vocal expression.
Conduct an experiment where you play recordings of voices with varying pitches to a group of peers. Survey their perceptions of the speaker’s competence, authority, and likability. Analyze the results to understand the impact of pitch on social judgments.
I first became curious about the power of our voices a few months ago when I read about Margaret Thatcher changing her voice over decades to sound less shrill. The Queen also altered her voice over a long period of time. More recently, it has been reported that Elizabeth Holmes potentially lowered the pitch of her voice. So, I wondered: Ladies, why are we lowering our voices?
The way you speak is part genetic—like how long your neck is—and part learned—like the valley girl accent. No one sounds quite like you; your voice and all its qualities are as unique as your face: your intensity, pitch, tone, and nasality. This is all relatively straightforward. However, things get complicated when we start to make judgments about others based on their voice.
One voice expert, Professor Carolyn McGettigan, writes that “in vocal communication, we adopt a variety of selves.” After I highlighted this, I spoke to her, and she said, “I can adjust my pitch. I can adjust my intonation. If I had chosen to, when I moved to mainland UK, I could have started to speak with an English accent to try and fit in a bit more.” Depending on what self people want to portray, “when you hear a voice, you’re always hearing that combination of the physiology of that person and the way they use the instrument of the voice.” The way people use their voice can have significant implications.
The 2012 election for the House of Representatives in the U.S. is particularly noteworthy, as researchers in South Florida analyzed the voices of almost 800 candidates running for nearly every seat. They wanted to know if one feature of candidates’ voices influenced election outcomes: namely, their pitch. A lot of judgments we make about others from their voices are based on pitch—the relative highness or lowness of a voice. It’s worth noting that men speak, on average, an octave lower than women.
The experiment found that both male and female candidates with lower voices were more likely to win elected office. In a separate study, people preferred the lower-pitched voices of past U.S. presidents and rated those speakers as having greater integrity and physical prowess. This suggests that pitch affects popularity. But does it affect competence? Can you gauge how good someone is at their job from their voice?
In animals, vocal sounds signal size and ability to defend themselves, which indicates competence and strength—if you’re a deer. Unlike animals, though, low pitch in human voices isn’t directly tied to the size of the person. Yet in the human world, we still rate men with low-pitched voices as more attractive, and across genders, we’re more likely to elect officials with deeper voices.
Researchers followed up by collecting samples of the voices of Members of the 109th U.S. Congress and their power rankings—essentially how effective they are at politics. They analyzed voice pitch and mapped it to this power ranking, and… nothing. Voice pitch doesn’t have any relationship with leadership ability.
However, researchers in South Australia have found that the average pitch of women’s voices has dropped by 23 Hz over the past 50 years. They speculated that over time, women have adopted a deeper tone to project authority and dominance in the workplace. In addition to Australia, women’s voices have grown deeper in Canada, the U.S., and Sweden since the 1950s.
It’s fascinating that pitch not only influences who we vote for, but this belief that lower-pitched voices are more competent has led to generations of people lowering their voices. The next time you’re listening to an interview, a speech, or a presentation, analyze the words, because the pitch isn’t always perfect.
Voice – The sound produced by humans using the vocal cords, often analyzed in psychology for its role in communication and expression of emotions. – In the study of communication, a person’s voice can convey a wide range of emotions and intentions beyond the spoken words.
Pitch – The quality of a sound determined by the frequency of the sound waves, often analyzed in communication for its impact on how messages are perceived. – In communication studies, the pitch of a speaker’s voice can influence how persuasive or credible they are perceived to be.
Perception – The process by which individuals interpret and organize sensory information to understand the environment, crucial in understanding communication dynamics. – Perception plays a critical role in communication, as it affects how messages are received and interpreted by different individuals.
Communication – The process of exchanging information, ideas, or feelings between individuals through verbal, non-verbal, or written methods. – Effective communication is essential in psychology to ensure that therapeutic interventions are understood and implemented correctly by clients.
Competence – The ability to effectively and appropriately engage in communication, often assessed in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. – Communication competence is a key factor in successful interpersonal interactions and is often a focus in psychological training programs.
Authority – The power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience, often examined in psychology for its influence on communication and behavior. – In a therapeutic setting, a psychologist’s authority can impact the client’s willingness to engage and follow treatment recommendations.
Dominance – The degree to which an individual asserts control or influence over others, often studied in psychology to understand social hierarchies and communication patterns. – Dominance in communication can manifest through verbal cues, such as interrupting others, or non-verbal cues, like maintaining eye contact.
Accents – Distinctive modes of pronunciation associated with particular regions or social groups, often analyzed in communication studies for their impact on perception and interaction. – Research in communication psychology suggests that accents can affect how speakers are perceived in terms of intelligence and trustworthiness.
Behavior – The actions or reactions of an individual in response to external or internal stimuli, a fundamental concept in psychology. – Understanding behavior is crucial in psychology, as it helps in developing strategies for behavior modification and therapy.
Election – A formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office, often studied in psychology for its impact on group behavior and communication. – Psychological studies on elections often focus on how communication strategies influence voter behavior and decision-making.
