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Deep-voiced men get the girls

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15.03.2005

Women prefer men with deep voices, research from Northumbria University has discovered.

Sarah Evans, a part-time psychology lecturer and PhD student, found that women consider deep voices more attractive, dominant, masculine, sexy, assertive, confident and friendly.

Male listeners also rated deep male voices higher than high-pitched voices for attributes such as dominance, masculinity and confidence.

Men’s voices are significantly deeper than women’s due to the action of testosterone and the descent of the larynx in the vocal tract during puberty.

Sarah believes a deep male voice is a signal to females of a man’s hormonal and genetic quality while it signals social dominance to other male rivals.

Sarah said: “It is well established that many animals use vocal calls to attract females and intimidate their male competitors but this has yet to be looked at in any depth vis-à-vis human beings.

“My research is examining whether the human voice may be an important but so far over-looked factor in human attraction and male competition for potential female mates.’’

The interim findings also revealed that physical and vocal attractiveness seem to be related. When participants listened to male voices and then independently viewed photographs of the speakers’ faces without hearing them speak, men with attractive faces were also found to have attractive voices. This could be because the male hormone testosterone which determines the pitch of the voice also determines some facial features such as a strong jawline which most women find attractive.

Ruth Laing | Source: alphagalileo
Further information: www.northumbria.ac.uk

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