为什么智能手机的语音助手都是女声?

　　If you have a smartphone, you also have your very own digital personal assistant. There's the iPhone's Siri (now added to Apple TV), of course, but don't forget Cortana on the Windows Phone or the S Voice on the Samsung Galaxy¹. All of these virtual voices have one thing in common: They all sound female.

　　倘若你有一部智能手机，那你一定也会有自己的私人专属数码助手。苹果手机上装有Siri语音助手（现今苹果电视上也装有此功能），当然，类似的语音功能软件还有微软手机上的“Cortana”（微软小娜）以及三星“盖乐世”系列手机上的S Voice语音助手功能。但所有的这些虚拟语音功能都有一个共同的特点：均为女性发音。

　　This, as you might've guessed, is no coincidence. Writing for Wired this week, Jessi Hempel explores some of the social-science research on the way people perceive male voices versus² female voices. Take, for example, research conducted by Karl MacDorman, an Indiana University professor who studies human-computer interaction:

　　你可能已经猜到，这些巧合并非偶然。杰西·亨普尔本周在美国《连线》杂志发表了一篇文章，文章写到他对一些社会科学方面的研究进行了调研，比如人们对男性和女性声音的感知方式差异。举个例子，印第安纳大学的一位主要研究人机交互的教授卡尔·麦克道曼曾经进行过这样一个研究：

　　为什么智能手机的语音助手都是女声?

　　He and fellow researchers played clips of male and female voices to people of both genders³, then asked them to identify which they preferred. The researchers also measured the way participants actually responded to the voices. In a 2011 paper, they reported that both women and men said female voices came across as warmer. In practice, women even showed a subconscious⁴ preference for responding to females; men remained subconsciously⁵ neutral. “Men will say they prefer female speech, and women really do prefer it,” MacDorman says.

　　他和和其他研究人员给参与男女两性声音测试的志愿者分别播放了男性声音和女性声音的片段，然后让这些志愿者听完之后确定并选出所喜欢的声音。与此同时，研究人员还对志愿者实对声音的反馈进行了测量。他们曾经在 2011 年的一篇文章中指出，女性和男性志愿者都认为女性的声音听起来比较温暖人心。实验证明，女性志愿者对女性的声音表现出了一种潜意识上的喜好，而男性志愿者则仍潜意识地保持中立。卡尔·麦克道曼教授表示：“男性志愿者总是说他们喜欢女性的声音，但女性志愿者才是真心实意地喜欢女性的声音。

　　Then again, you can't entirely⁶ discount the fact that the Silicon⁷ Valley tech-bros who are designing many of these virtual assistants may be falling back on the “stereotype of a compliant⁸ sidekick,” Hempel concedes. But then again, it will be interesting to watch how these voices evolve alongside the technology. After all, for their app, Domino's went with an affable-sounding dude-voice, which they dubbed⁹ Dom.

　　当然，杰西·亨普尔在文中还提到：我们不能完全否认这样一个事实，即许多来自硅谷的虚拟助手设计师们可能正在陷入“一个兼容的助手”这样一个刻板印象上。不过，能够见证语音技术如何伴随科技不断演变进步，也是件十分有趣的事。毕竟，多米诺(Domino)就在他们的 App 中使用了一名暖男的声音，他们将它命名为 Dom。

1 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

2 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

3 genders   

n.性某些语言的（阳性、阴性和中性，不同的性有不同的词尾等）( gender的名词复数 )；性别；某些语言的（名词、代词和形容词）性的区分

参考例句：

• There are three genders in German: masculine, feminine and neuter. 德语中有叁性：阳性、阴性和中性。 来自辞典例句
• Japan was fourth among the genders of foreign students. 日本在二十个留美学生输送地中列第四位。 来自互联网

4 subconscious   

n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的)

参考例句：

• Nail biting is often a subconscious reaction to tension.咬指甲通常是紧张时的下意识反映。
• My answer seemed to come from the subconscious.我的回答似乎出自下意识。

5 subconsciously   

ad.下意识地，潜意识地

参考例句：

• In choosing a partner we are subconsciously assessing their evolutionary fitness to be a mother of children or father provider and protector. 在选择伴侣的时候，我们会在潜意识里衡量对方将来是否会是称职的母亲或者父亲，是否会是合格的一家之主。
• Lao Yang thought as he subconsciously tightened his grasp on the rifle. 他下意识地攥紧枪把想。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

6 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

7 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

8 compliant   

adj.服从的，顺从的

参考例句：

• I don't respect people who are too compliant.我看不起那种唯命是从，唯唯诺诺的人。
• For years I had tried to be a compliant and dutiful wife.几年来，我努力做一名顺从和尽职尽职的妻子。

9 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》