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Men who sound very masculine are less likely to win a US Supreme Court case than their gentler sounding peers, a new study has found.

Researchers analysed recording of laywer's voices and then asked volunteers to rank them.

They found that just one trait emerged as an indicator of how they would do - how masculine their voice was.

Researchers analysed recording of laywers at the Supreme Court (pictured) and then asked volunteers to rank them. They found that just one trait emerged ans an indicator of how they would do - how masculine their voice sounded.

The team led by linguist Alan Yu of the University of Chicago and legal theorist Daniel Chen of ETH Zurich in Switzerland collected 60 recordings of male lawyers in the Supreme Court making the traditional opening statement: 'Mister Chief Justice, may it please the court'. 

200 volunteers rated these clips for how masculine they thought the speaker was, as well as how attractive, confident, intelligent, trustworthy and educated they perceived the voice to be.

After accounting for the age and experience of the lawyers, statistical analysis showed that only one of the traits could predict the court outcome. 

'We show that perceived attributes of voices predict Supreme Court wins, suggesting potential differential labor market treatment of lawyers with certain mutable characteristics such as sounding more or less masculine or confident,' the pair wrote.

They also say that confidence plays a key.  

'We show that perceived masculinity and confidence constitute significant predictors of Supreme Court decisions. In particular, more masculine sounding voices are less likely to win a case, while more confidence-sounding voices show the opposite correlation. 

After accounting for the age and experience of the lawyers, statistical analysis showed that only one of the traits could predict the court outcome - how masculine the voice is.

'While the mechanism underlying these connections is still under investigation, it suggests that the perceived vocal characteristics might have significant impact on real world outcomes.'

'It was a surprise to all of us,' Yu, whose results will be presented at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America in Portland, Oregon, in January, told New Scientist.

 He now plans to explore whether the perceived likelihood of winning affects how lawyers speak. 'Lawyers who think they're going to lose may project a different kind of voice, perhaps overcompensating by sounding more masculine' says Yu,