Bottom line (maybe): Embrace your inner Barry White.
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I started researching the article you’re about to read thinking I’d be writing about a really fascinating new study on how men’s voices can shape the way other people see them. And that would have been interesting enough.
But then, I talked with the researcher behind the study, and I learned that the origin of this whole thing has to do with an entrepreneurial streak and a venture that he launched long before he became a researcher.
Yes, please. The researcher in question is named James Rutter, and his study, co-authored with Lynda Boothroyd of Durham University, was just published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Let’s give you the bottom line of the research upfront: Deeper voices made men seem stronger, more socially dominant, heavier — and my personal favorite, better at fighting.
Refreshed leadership advice from CEO Stephanie Mehta
(Says in extremely deep voice: “Don’t worry, I would never hurt anyone. As long as I didn’t need to.”)
It started with an app
Rutter, who grew up on a farm and in a village in the UK, told me that he decided early on he wanted to find a career that would keep him living in the countryside.
About a decade ago, all signs pointed to learning to code, since you could do it from anywhere. As the development world turned toward smartphone apps, he did too.