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Men's voices and women's choices.

Collins1

  • 1Behavioural Biology Section, Institute of Evolutionary & Ecological Sciences, Leiden, The Netherlands

Animal Behaviour
|December 23, 2000
PubMed
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Women prefer deeper male voices, associating them with attractiveness and masculinity. However, these vocal cues do not accurately reflect actual physical traits, suggesting a complex role in sexual selection.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary psychology
  • Bioacoustics
  • Human behavior

Background:

  • Female mate choice is a key driver of sexual selection.
  • Male vocal characteristics may signal underlying traits relevant to mate quality.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the relationship between male vocal characteristics and female perceptions of attractiveness and physical traits.
  • To determine if female judgments align with actual male physical characteristics.

Main Methods:

  • Recorded 34 males vocalizing vowels and analyzed acoustic properties (harmonic frequencies, peak frequency, formant frequencies).
  • Collected male physical data (age, weight, height, body measurements, chest hair presence).
  • Had females rate recordings on attractiveness, perceived age, weight, height, muscularity, and chest hair.

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Main Results:

  • Lower-frequency, closely spaced harmonics in male voices were linked to higher attractiveness ratings.
  • These vocal traits were also associated with perceptions of older age, heavier weight, more muscularity, and chest hair.
  • No correlation was found between vocal characteristics and actual physical measurements.
  • Female judges' perceptions were inaccurate for most traits except weight, but showed high agreement.

Conclusions:

  • Results suggest potential sexual selection favoring deeper male voices, possibly indicating female preference for certain vocal cues.
  • The inaccuracy of these perceptions challenges the direct signaling function of these vocal traits for mate quality.
  • The evolutionary function of this vocal preference remains unclear due to the disconnect with reality.