Abstract
Manipulations of voice pitch have been shown to alter attractiveness ratings, but whether preferences extend to very low or very high voice pitch is unknown. Here, we manipulated voice pitch in averaged men's and women's voices by 2 Hz intervals to create a range of male and female voices speaking monopthong vowel sounds and spanning a range of frequencies from normal to very low and very high pitch. With these voices, we used the method of constant stimuli to measure preferences for voice. Nineteen university students (ages: 20–25) participated in three experiments. On average, men preferred high-pitched women's voices to low-pitched women's voices across all frequencies tested. On average, women preferred men's voices lowered in pitch, but did not prefer very low men's voices. The results of this study may reflect selection pressures for men's and women's voices, and shed light on a perceptual link between voice pitch and vocal attractiveness.
Highlights
Preferences for stimuli that exaggerate sexually-selected features are found throughout the animal kingdom
Men’s vocal cords lengthen and thicken much more so than women’s, resulting in the adult male voice pitch being on average half the frequency of adult female voice pitch [11]
We found that men preferred high-pitched women’s voices to low-pitched women’s voices, even when voice pitch was above the normal speaking range, and our analyses suggest that men’s preferences for high voice pitch in women may contribute to directional selection on women’s voice pitch
Summary
Preferences for stimuli that exaggerate sexually-selected features are found throughout the animal kingdom. One trait in humans that appears to have undergone intense sexual selection is the average fundamental frequency of the voice [5]. While voice pitch reflects allometric scaling in several primate species [6,7], humans appear to be unique among primates in that sexual dimorphism of adult voice pitch is well beyond what may be explained by height alone [8,9,10]. Men’s vocal cords lengthen and thicken much more so than women’s, resulting in the adult male voice pitch being on average half the frequency of adult female voice pitch [11]. Case studies of male-to-female transsexuals indicate that women may have different quantities and sensitivities of androgen receptors on their vocal cords, administering exogenous testosterone to women does lead to a drop in voice pitch [14]. Voice pitch is indicative of laryngeal development, and is dependent on pubertal and fluctuating levels of sex hormones [11,16]
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