It's no secret that making a good first impression can go a long way. But aside from a smile and a firm handshake, you need one key trait to truly nail that initial meet-and-greet. We’ll give you a hint: Most people pay attention to what you say, not what you do.

众所周知，给别人留下一个良好的第一印象可能会大有帮助。不过除了微笑和坚定的握手以外，要真正把握第一次会面，你还需要一项重要的特质。我们会给你点提示：多数人注意的是你在说什么，而不是你在做什么。

A 2014 study revealed that the tone of a person’s voice can indicate whether or not they are trustworthy. The researchers asked 320 subjects to listen to 64 different people say the word “hello” and rate them based on one of 10 personality traits. Turns out, the participants generally agreed on which voices were trustworthy and which were not—even though the voices played for less than a second.

2014年的一项研究指出，一个人的语调可以表明他们是否值得信任。研究人员请320个主体听64个不同的人说“hello”（你好）这个词，并根据10项性格特点之一为他们打分。虽然播放的声音还不足1秒钟，但结果表明，对于那些值得信任以及不值得信任的嗓音，参与者的意见普遍一致。

To find out why this was the case, the team designed a new study. A computer voice model imitated the acoustical traits of the voices that the 2014 participants had rated as most and least trustworthy. Then, 500 more people listened to the recordings online and rated how trustworthy they were on a scale of 1 to 7.

为了弄清楚为什么会这样，该团队构思了一项新研究。一台电脑语音模型模仿了2014年实验参与者选出来的最值得信任和最不值得信任的嗓音的声学特点。然后500多人在线听这段录音，并根据他们的感知从1到7为这些声音的值得信任程度评分。

This is what the findings revealed: Voices that “have personality” and inflection are consistently perceived as more trustworthy than those that do not. While the audio clips rated as “most trustworthy” offered varied tones, the least trustworthy ones remained mostly flat.

研究发现，人们一致认为，“有个性”且抑扬顿挫的声音比那些没什么特点的声音更值得信任。虽然被评为“最值得信任的”音频剪辑有不同的音调，但最不值得信任的音频剪辑则大多都语调平平。

“It is amazing that from such short bursts of speech you can get such a definite impression of a person,” the researcher Phil McAleer said. “And that, irrespective of whether it is accurate, your impression is the same as what the other listeners get.”

“从这么短的讲话中可以产生对一个人的明确印象，这太惊人了，”研究员菲尔·麦卡利尔说道。“而且，不论这是否正确，你所产生的印象与其他人所感知到的印象是一致的。”

（翻译：Dlacus）