As voters vacillate among the contenders for the Republican nomination, it may matter less what the candidates say than how they sound when they say it. Because a new study shows that voters are more likely to prefer the candidate with the deeper voice.
正當選民們在共和黨總統提名的競爭者之間搖擺不定時,如今這些候選人說的是什么已不重要了,重要的是他們說話的聲音。因為一項新研究表明,選民更青睞于聲音低沉的候選人。

Previous studies have suggested that voters might go for the baritone over the tenor. But those experiments used recordings of former U.S. presidents, which meant that volunteer listeners might have recognized the speakers and voted along party lines.
以往的研究表明,選民更容易投票給具有男中音而非男高音的候選人。但是,這項研究試驗使用的是美國往屆總統的錄音,這意味著志愿者聽眾們可能已經識別出了是誰的聲音,并且他們的選擇會因此而受到黨派路線的影響。
In this study, researchers played subjects a pair of anonymous voices and asked which they would elect: “I urge you to vote for me this November” or “I urge you to vote for me this November.”
在這項研究中,研究人員播放了兩個匿名者的聲音:“我懇請你們在今年十一月投我一票。”看看志愿者聽眾們到底會選誰。
Okay, the recordings they used were no doubt less comical. But voters went with the overnight DJ hands down, results that appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
好吧,試驗所使用的錄音毫無疑問不是那些滑稽的聲音。但選民們輕而易舉地就選擇了DJ似的聲音。這項結果刊登在《皇家學會學報》上。
So why do we tend to elect Orson Welles over Pee Wee Herman? Deep voices may strike some primal chord, giving the impression of strength and competence. So candidates take heed: it’s great to wave the stars and stripes, but what’s really key is your set of pipes.
那么,為什么我們傾向于選擇奧森-威爾斯而不是皮-威-赫爾曼?低沉的聲音可能會觸動一些原始和弦,給人的印象是實力和能力。因此,各位候選人要注意了:揮舞星條旗固然正確,但個中關鍵是注意你們的嗓音。