Birth Control Does Not Significantly Alter Women’s Preferences for Variants of Men’s Voices

Abstract

AbstractResearch shows that women‘s preferences for masculine voices (low pitch) vary as a function of the menstrual cycle, becoming positively augmented around ovulation. The proximate cause catalyzing this effect is attributed to fluctuating estrogen levels. Thus, the introduction of hormonally based birth control has been to shown to have a dampening effect in experiments researching women‘s preference of dimorphic secondary sexual characteristics. However, this dampening effect has not yet been explored in respect to women‘s preferences for masculine voice types. This experiment sought, first, to investigate the effect of birth control on subjects off and on birth control; and, second, to replicate past findings: Women‘s preference for masculine voice types increases during ovulation.Six voice stimuli were created from voice recordings of two men speaking monopthong vowels. Each recording‘s pitch was increased or decreased 3%. Subjects rated the attractiveness of each stimulus using a five point Likert type scale. Results showed that women (n = 145; 85 off and 60 on birth control, average age = 23.1±4.57) preferred the naturally lower pitched voice; though, this preference could not be attributed to pitch, solely. Fourth order polynomial regression analysis revealed preference for deep voice pitch was not influenced by ovulation, though significant fluctuation in preference occurred over the cycle. Lastly, there were no significant differences in preference scores between the on and off birth control samples. The authors discuss multiple methodological and statistical methods in respect to these novel findings.