In a court of law, having a deeper voice may hinder a lawyer's likeliness to win a case, according to a study, Smithsonian Mag reported.
The research suggests that attorneys with lower-pitched voices may be more likely to win arguments in court. To come to the conclusion, researchers had 200 volunteers listen to 60 male attorneys repeating the statement: "Mister Chief Justice, may it please the court."
The voices were then rated on how intelligent, educated and trustworthy they were, among other factors.
Data was compared to the real trial outcomes of the 60 lawyers in the study. With age and experience controlled, it was discovered that masculinity was the main factor in whether or not the speaker of the voice would win their case.
The preference for higher voices could be a bias, and scientists said there might be nothing that can be done to remedy it.
"The only way around it is to make people aware of the bias, and hope they are mindful of it when listening," one researcher who has studied voting bias said, according to Newser.
