BC Jones, DR Feinberg, LM DeBruine, AC Little & J Vukovic A domain-specific opposite-sex bias in human preferences for manipulated voice pitch. Animal Behaviour. 79, 57-62. PDF Times cited 9
Abstract:
Women’s preferences for masculine characteristics in men’s voices and men’s preferences for feminine characteristics in women’s voices are thought to reflect adaptations that identify high-quality (e.g. healthy) mates. Consistent with this proposal, we found that men had stronger preferences than women for women’s voices with raised pitch (i.e. feminized female voices) and that women had stronger preferences than men for men’s voices with lowered pitch (i.e. masculinized male voices). Importantly, however, no such opposite-sex bias was evident for attributions of dominance to voices with raised and lowered pitch; men’s and women’s voices with lowered pitch were perceived to be more dominant than those with raised pitch and these effects were equivalent for male and female listeners. Collectively, our findings suggest that preferences for voice pitch may function, at least in part, to identify high-quality mates and show that opposite-sex biases in preferences for voice pitch cannot be explained simply by greater general sensitivity to manipulated pitch in opposite-sex voices than in own-sex voices.
O'Connor JJM, Feinberg DR, Fraccaro PJ, Borak DJ, Tigue CC, Re DE, Jones BC, Little AC, Tiddeman, BP. Female preferences for male vocal and facial masculinity in videos. Ethology.
Watkins CD, Jones BC, Little AC, DeBruine LM, Feinbeg DR. Cues to the sex ratio of the local population influence women's preferences for facial symmetry. Animal Behaviour.
Feinberg DR, DeBruine LM, Jones BC, LIttle AC, O'Connor JJM, Tigue CC. Women's self-perceived health and attractiveness predict their male vocal masculinity preferences in different directions across short- and long-term relationship contexts. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
O'Connor JJM & Feinberg DR. The influence of facial masculinity and voice pitch on jealousy and perceptions of intrasexual rivalry. Personality and Individual DIfferences (In Press).
MJ Law Smith, DK Deady, FR Moore, BC Jones, RE Cornwell, MR Stirrat, J Lawson, DR Feinberg & DI Perrett (in press). Maternal tendencies in women are associated with estrogen levels and facial femininity. Hormones and Behavior.