How deep is your love? Or why manly voices get the girl – most of the time

Published on Tuesday 2 December 2008 21:34

WOMEN prefer men with deep voices because it signals dominance and good genes, a study has shown.

Men with deeper voices attract women more than those with squeaky ones when they are at their most fertile.

Deeper-voiced men are deemed better hunters who offer more protection.

Women are attracted to feminine-voiced men only during times of decreased fertility, such as when they are breastfeeding – demonstrating they experience shifts in their choices.

Men find high-pitched voices in women more alluring, as this suggests they are more subordinate, feminine, healthier and younger, said the study.

Dr Coren Apicella, an anthropologist of Harvard University, and Dr David Feinberg, a psychologist of McMaster University, Ontario, studied the Hadza tribe of Tanzania, one of the last hunter-gatherer cultures.

They played them recordings of both raised and lowered versions of the same voice, and asked subjects which they preferred. While women with masculine voices were perceived to be better gatherers, the men opted for the feminine-voiced women as the best mates.

Masculine-voiced men were deemed better hunters, and women who were not breastfeeding preferred these men as mates. Nursing women preferred feminine-voiced men.

The researchers said in the Royal Society journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society: "Voice pitch may be an indicator of underlying mate quality. Vocal attractiveness is correlated with body and facial attractiveness."