Recent research suggests that deep masculine voices may benefit men in leadership positions. However, how this phenomenon plays out at the top of the organization is largely unexplored. In our research, published in the Journal of Management Studies, we find that CEO vocal masculinity is associated with greater CEO pay in the early stages of the CEO’s tenure, but that this effect is mitigated by greater female representation on the board’s compensation committee.

Why Vocal Masculinity Biases Early-Stage CEO Compensation

A burgeoning body of work in evolutionary psychology suggests that signals of physical strength and fighting ability that appear in the faces, voices, and bodies of individuals can positively bias perceptions of leadership quality for male leaders. This bias is theorized to have evolved due to the prevalence of violent conflicts across human evolutionary history. At the same time, these perceptions are not predictive of behavioral tendencies in the present day, leading to biased decision-making (Anderson and Klofstad, 2018; Wang et al., 2019). We wanted to examine whether and how biases rooted in physical strength signals shape board decision making on early-stage CEO compensation.

In our study, we focused on vocal masculinity—a physical strength signal in the voice—given how often directors are exposed to the CEO’s voice. Directors are exposed to CEO vocal masculinity when they are on phone calls with the CEO, when they are in virtual meetings, and when they are meeting the CEO face to face. Indeed, we find that CEO vocal masculinity is more influential in shaping CEO pay decisions than the facial-width-to-height ratio, another physical strength signal that has been linked to leader perceptions (Wang et al., 2019). Our measure of vocal masculinity—formant dispersion—is difficult for individuals to modulate and is largely unchanged by age (once individuals reach adulthood), emotional states, or voice coaching. We measured formant dispersion using the speech analysis software Praat. We focus on the early stage of the CEO’s tenure given prior work suggesting that the greater difficulty associated with evaluating CEO quality in the early stages of the CEO’s tenure makes boards more susceptible to biases (Graffin, Boivie, and Carpenter, 2013). Our research uncovered not only that CEO vocal masculinity is positively associated with early-stage CEO compensation, but also that this effect is mitigated by female compensation on the board’s compensation committee and amplified by industry competitiveness.

Implications for Gender Diversity on the Board

Our findings are notable for highlighting an important benefit to greater female representation on the board that was previously unknown. While some have suggested that female directors will behave differently from male directors, others have highlighted that male/female differences found in the general population may not hold in the board room. We argued based on insights from the evolutionary literature that men are more prone to be biased by vocal masculinity in their evaluations of CEO quality given that men were much more likely to be participants in violent intergroup competition across human evolutionary history. Our findings suggest that at least when it comes to the vocal masculinity bias, gender differences are important in understanding board decision making.

References

Graffin, S. D., Boivie, S., & Carpenter, M. A. (2013). Examining CEO succession and the role of heuristics in early‐stage CEO evaluation. Strategic Management Journal, 34(4), 383-403.

Klofstad, C. A., & Anderson, R. C. (2018). Voice pitch predicts electability, but does not signal leadership ability. Evolution and human behavior, 39(3), 349-354.

Wang, D., Nair, K., Kouchaki, M., Zajac, E. J., & Zhao, X. (2019). A case of evolutionary mismatch? Why facial width-to-height ratio may not predict behavioral tendencies. Psychological Science, 30(7), 1074-1081.