William Atkins
Friday, 05 December 2008 03:49
Science -
Biology
Page 1 of 2
A U.S.-Canadian study shows that deeper voices in men show dominance and good genetics to women. However, breast-feeding women like higher pitched voices in men. Can you guess what type of voices men liked in their women?
The researchers state in their paper’s abstract,
“In humans, voice pitch is thought to be a cue of underlying quality and an important criterion for mate choice, but data from non-Western cultures have not been provided.”
And,
“Here we test attributions to and preferences for voices with raised and lowered pitch in hunter–gatherers.”
Specifically, U.S. anthropologist Coren Apicella and Canadian psychologist David Feinberg, studied 88 members of the
Hadza tribe, a hunter-gatherer group still in Tanzania.
Women, the researchers found, are drawn to high-pitched voices only during times of decreased fertility, such as when they are breast-feeding their newborns.
Men, however, were found to prefer high-pitched voices in women, which the researchers said was due to sounding
“more subordinate, feminine, healthier and younger.” [Herald Sun:
"Guys keep it deep to lure the ladies”]
They stated within their abstract,
“Using a forced-choice playback experiment, we found that both men and women viewed lower pitched voices in the opposite sex as being better at acquiring resources (e.g. hunting and gathering)."
"While men preferred higher pitched women's voices as marriage partners, women showed no overall preference for voice pitch in men.”
Page two continues.
