The Effects of Average Fundamental Frequency and Variance of Fundamental Frequency on Male Vocal Attractiveness to Women

Abstract

This paper employs a cue synthesis experimental method to examine the effects of pitch and intonation on male vocal attractiveness to women. Voices were acoustically manipulated to yield nine combinations of three levels of average fundamental frequency and three levels of variance of fundamental frequency. Strong main effects were obtained for the average fundamental frequency manipulation, with high voices rated as significantly less attractive to women than either medium or low voices, which do not differ in attractiveness. The main effects of manipulations of variance of fundamental frequency on vocal attractiveness and benevolence did not reach significance, but there was a significant interaction on the benevolence factor, with high or low average fundamental frequency manipulations being rated particularly low for voices with low variance of fundamental frequency.