Caveman Instincts' May Favor Deep-Voiced Politicians

[damnedifIknow]

Deep voices, which are tied to higher levels of testosterone, may trigger our “caveman instincts,” according to the authors of the study, which is published in PLOS ONE. These instincts associate leadership ability with physical prowess, as opposed to wisdom and experience.

“Modern-day political leadership is more about competing ideologies than brute force,” co-author Casey Klofstad of the University of Miami said in a press release. “But at some earlier time in human history it probably paid off to have a literally strong leader.”

Building on earlier research regarding CEO’s, Klofstad and biologists Rindy Anderson and Steve Nowicki of Duke University first surveyed 800 volunteers. Participants completed an online questionnaire with information about the age and sex of two hypothetical candidates, and indicated whom they would vote for in an election. The candidates ranged in age from 30 to 70.

Those who were surveyed overwhelmingly supported candidates in their 40s and 50s.

“That’s when leaders are not so young that they’re too inexperienced, but not so old that their health is starting to decline or they’re no longer capable of active leadership,” Klofstad said.

“Low and behold, it also happens to be the time in life when people’s voices reach their lowest pitch,” he added.

For the second part of the study, the researchers asked another group of volunteers, consisting of 400 men and 403 women, to listen to pairs of male and female recorded voices saying, “I urge you to vote for me this November.” Each paired recording was based on one person whose voice pitch had been altered up and down with computer software.

Once again, the volunteers were asked to select their favorite candidates. They were also asked which voice seemed stronger to them.

The deeper-voiced candidates won 60 to 76 percent of the votes, but when the researchers analyzed the voters’ perceptions of the candidates, they were surprised to find that strength and competence mattered more than age.

Finally, Klofstad and his colleagues calculated the mean voice pitch of the actual candidates from the 2012 U.S. House of Representatives elections. As predicted, they found that candidates with lower-pitched voices were more likely to win."

http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/caveman-instincts-may-favor-deep-voiced-politicians-150807.htm

[TlalocW]

1. That probably explains my reaction to Cruz then

There's just something about Cruz when he tries to act manly - especially since most of his schtick is that whole raising his eyebrows/thinning his lips thing as if every issue somehow tugs at the deepest recesses of his heart. But that machine gun bacon thing just failed on so many levels.

1. Cruz just isn't manly... He kind of comes off meterosexual.
2. It wasn't a machine gun like he claimed. He should lose "man points" for that.
3. He daintily picked at it with a fork after it was cooked. Kind of like when Jon Stewart piled on Trump for eating pizza in New York with a fork.
4. And you have to wonder just how much gun grease and lead powder he's eating along with that bacon.

TlalocW

[yeoman6987]

2. I hate him more then any other candidates including trump

You expressed him exactly. His college friend and he spend quite a bit of time together which is not a big deal except for again his hypocritical ways.