Voice pitch ==> CEO remuneration (correction: up is down)

Our eagle-eyed readers my have spotted a curiosity in the abstract for a forthcoming paper in Evolution & Human Behavior. ‘Voice pitch and the labor market success of male chief executive officers’

Specifically, the sentence :

“For the median CEO of the median sample firm, an interquartile increase in voice pitch (22.1Hz) is associated with a $440 million increase in the size of the firm managed, and in turn, $187 thousand more in annual compensation.”

Which should read :

“For the median CEO of the median sample firm, an interquartile decrease in voice pitch (22.1Hz) is associated with a $440 million increase in the size of the firm managed, and in turn, $187 thousand more in annual compensation.”

In other words, the lower their voice, the more they can expect to earn.

The paper can be read in full here  – note the full text has the effect described the right way round. (section 3.1)

[Many thanks to Professor Mayew at Duke University for his clarification.]