Booming voices are no boon for male lawyers

摘要

In the often macho environment of the courtroom, a booming voice might seem like a good trait for a lawyer to cultivate. Not so - men who sound very masculine are actually less likely to win a US Supreme Court case than their effeminate-sounding peers. It's well known that our voice shapes how people perceive us, which In turn may affect how successful we are. Men, for example, are more likely to vote for other men with deeper, masculine voices, and CEOs with deeper voices earn more money. To explore whether the vocal characteristics of male lawyers affect trial outcomes, a team led by linguist Alan Yu of the University of Chicago collected 60 recordings of lawyers In the Supreme Court making the traditional opening statement: "Mister Chief Justice, may It please the court". Then 200 volunteers rated these clips according to how masculine they thought the speaker was, as well as how attractive, confident intelligent trustworthy and educated they perceived the voice to be.