You may have noticed that the voices of politicians seem to change as they rise up the ranks.

你可能會注意到，政客升往高職時，他們的聲音也隨之改變。

Now scientists claim that being in a position of power can fundamentally change the way you speak and other people can pick up on these vocal cues.

科學家研究發現，位高權重會從根本上改變你的說話方式，而其他人能注意到這種語言暗示。

They say that the cues - such as talking more loudly with less variation in pitch - tell people who is really in charge, regardless of what an individual is saying.

科學家認為，聲音嘹亮、音調平緩的說話方式，能告訴別人誰是這個團體的當權者，而不在乎別人怎么想。

‘Our findings suggest that whether it's parents attempting to assert authority over unruly children, haggling between a car salesman and customer, or negotiations between heads of states, the sound of the voices involved may profoundly determine the outcome of those interactions,’ psychological scientist Sei Jin Ko of San Diego State University said.

圣地亞哥州立大學（San Diego State University）的心理學家柯謝金（Sei Jin Ko）指出：“研究表明，不管是父母想在任性的小孩面前樹立威信，還是汽車銷售員與顧客討價還價，抑或是各國元首進行會談，他們的說話方式都會對這些互動造成深遠影響。

Dr Ko and her team had long been interested in non-language-related properties of speech, but it was former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that inspired them to investigate the relationship between acoustic cues and power.

柯博士的團隊一直對演講中的的非語言方面很有興趣，但前英國首相撒切爾夫人的經歷激發了他們好奇心，讓他們想要研究聲信號與權力的關系。

‘It was quite well known that Thatcher had gone through extensive voice coaching to exude a more authoritative, powerful persona,’ she explained.

柯博士解釋道：“眾所周知，撒切爾夫人曾受過大量的語音訓練，以便顯得更具權威、更強勢。”

‘We wanted to explore how something so fundamental as power might elicit changes in the way a voice sounds, and how these situational vocal changes impact the way listeners perceive and behave toward the speakers.’

“因此，我們想要探究權力這類東西，是如何讓聲音發生變化的；還有不同場合的聲音變化，會如何在觀念和行動上影響聽眾。

To find out, Dr Ko, Melody Sadler, also of San Diego State and Adam Galinsky of Columbia Business School, designed two studies.

為了找出答案，柯博士與同事梅洛迪·薩德勒(Melody Sadler)，以及哥倫比亞商學院的亞當·加林斯基(Adam Galinsky)設計了兩個實驗。

In the first experiment, they recorded 161 college students reading a passage so they could record their natural acoustics.

在第一個實驗中，他們請來161名大學生朗讀文章，然后錄下他們的聲音。

The participants were then randomly assigned to play a specific role in a negotiation exercise, according to the study, published in the journal Psychological Science.

然后這些學生被隨機分組，在談判練習中扮演特定的角色。該研究成果被發表在《心理科學》期刊上。

Students assigned to a ‘high rank’ were told to go into the negotiation imagining that they either had a strong alternative offer, valuable inside information, or high status in the workplace. Alternatively, they were also asked to recall an experience in which they had power before the negotiation started.

在模擬談判時，被分配到“高層”的學生要想象他們有強大的實力、珍貴的內部信息和較高的工作地位。此外，研究者也要求他們在談判前，回想自己曾經擁有權力的經歷。

Low-rank students, on the other hand, were told to imagine they had either a weak offer, no inside information, or low workplace status, or they were asked to recall an experience in which they lacked power.

另一方面，“底層”的學生則要想象他們處于劣勢地位，并回想自己沒有權力的時候。

The students then read a second passage aloud in character, as if they were negotiating with an imaginary adversary and their voices were recorded.

然后，學生們以各自的身份大聲朗讀第二段文章，就像他們在與想象中的對手談判一樣，與此同時，研究者錄下他們的聲音。

All the students involved in the experiment read the same opening, which allowed the researchers to examine acoustics fairly, because the contents of the passage remained the same.

因為所有的學生都朗讀了相同的段落和的內容，所以研究者能公正地檢驗聲音效果。

Comparing the first and second recordings, the researchers found that the voices of students assigned to high-power roles tended to go up in pitch, as well as become more monotone - with less variable in pitch – and varied more in volume than the voices of students assigned low-power roles.

比對第一段與第二段錄音，研究者們發現：被分配到“高層”的學生，聲音高亢、音調平緩，而且音量也比“底層”角色的學生大。

‘Amazingly, power affected our participants' voices in almost the exact same way that Thatcher's voice changed after her vocal training,’ said Professor Galinsky.

賈林斯基說：“令人驚奇的是，測試者受權力影響后的聲音變化，幾乎與撒切爾夫人受語音訓練后的聲音變化一模一樣。”

While Baroness Thatcher's voice got deeper overall thanks to voice coaching, the researchers told MailOnline that it got higher pitched in 'power situations'.

研究人員向《每日郵報》表示，撒切爾夫人通過語音訓練，雖然聲音整體上有很大改變，但在“權力場合”中，她會用更高的音調演講。

'That is different from a voice being generally high or low pitched,' they explained.

'Or to put it another way, even if speaker A's voice is generally lower pitched than speaker B's voice, both speakers can increase their pitch to the same degree in a high power situation.'

他們解釋說：“這與一般人平時說話的音調高低不同。換句話說，即使A說話的音調本身就低于B，但在需要權力的場合中，兩人的音調都會有相同程度的提高。

And the students' vocal cues didn't go unnoticed.

此外，學生聲音的變化也能引起聽眾的注意。

A second experiment with a separate group of college students revealed that listeners, who had no knowledge of the first experiment, were able to pick up on these power-related vocal cues to determine who did and did not have power.

第二個實驗邀請了另一群大學生，他們并不清楚之前的實驗，但也能通過發言者不同的說話方式，確定其有權或無權。

Listeners ranked speakers who had been assigned to the high-rank group as more likely to engage in high-power behaviours and they were able to spot whether a speaker held a position of power or not, with ‘considerable accuracy’.

聽眾會把發言者分配到不同組別，被分到“高層”組的往往是之前扮演有權力的人，而且聽眾能“相當準確”地發現發言者是否擁有權力。

Echoing the findings of the first experiment, listeners tended to associate higher pitch and voices that varied in volume, with powerful people. They also associated louder voices with higher power.

這也印證了第一個實驗的結果，聽眾傾向于把嗓音高亢及聲音嘹亮的發言者，視為擁有更高權力的人。

‘These findings suggest that listeners are quite perceptive to these subtle variations in vocal cues and they use these cues to decide who is in charge,’ Professor Galinsky said.

賈林斯基教授說：“這些發現指出，聽眾相當了解聲音暗示的微妙變化，并用這些暗示來判斷誰是當權者。”

（譯者：zoe212 編輯：丹妮）