Have a high-pitched voice? Chances are, you prefer masculine men with deeper voices over guys who use mid-range or higher notes when they speak, say researchers from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. In their recent study, women with the highest-pitched voices who listened to recordings of men saying “I really like you” or “I really don’t like you” were 20% more likely to believe the men with the deeper voices were probably attractive regardless of what they were saying than women with lower-pitched voices.
The link? Researchers point a finger squarely at your hormones. A high-pitched voice in women is an indicator of a high estrogen level and a deep-pitched voice in men is an indicator of a high testosterone level, which is a common romantic pairing since these high hormones are key indicators of fertility and health, raising the chances of having lots of offspring.
Voices are also a key indicator of personality, with high voices in women suggesting traditionally feminine traits—such as agreeableness, empathy and cooperation—and low voices in men suggesting traditionally masculine traits—such as a dominant personality and competetiveness (picture the stereotype of the cheerleader and the football player). Women and men with mid-range voices and, therefore, hormones (like me and my husband) meet somewhere in the middle personality-wise.
But, this doesn’t mean women like me aren’t affected by a throaty male voice. Fact is, at mid-cycle during ovulation when estrogen is highest, most women find deeper tones hard to resist, past research shows.
[photo: CarbonNYC]
