Subscribe
A study by researchers at the University of California shows that women tend to speak with a higher tone of voice, when most fertile, making them more attractive to the opposite sex.
The researchers recorded the voice of 69 female undergraduates during two phases of their menstrual cycle. Once while their fertility was low, the other recording when they were near ovulation. When these women were closer to the period of egg release it was found that their voice tones were higher pitched. A finding which suggests sex hormones act on vocal chords to give off hidden signals about their fertility, that men might unconsciously identify.
But the difference was found only when women spoke a simple introductory sentence such as ‘Hi, I’m a student at UCLA’ and not for simple vowel sounds.
Although the changes are too subtle to identify in ordinary situations, experts believe that unlike other mammals there are no obvious signs to show that a woman is at her most fertile. However the biology of men lets them detect even subtle changes in the sex hormones of women; and previous studies have shown men had a greater affinity towards higher-pitched female voices, finding them far more attractive.
Lead author, Dr Greg Bryant, of the University of California, Los Angeles said:
Our study shows women change their voice in relation to fertility – and possibly only in social communication contexts. When speaking a simple introductory sentence women’s pitch increased during high – as compared with low – fertility and this difference was the greatest for women whose voices were recorded on the two highest fertility days within the fertile window – the two days just before ovulation.
The high versus low-fertility difference in pitch was associated with the approach of ovulation and not menstrual onset – thus representing the first research to show a specific cyclic fertility cue in the human voice. We interpret this finding as evidence of a fertility-related enhancement of femininity consistent with other research documenting attractiveness-related changes associated with ovulation.
These findings support previous studies that documented changes to body scents, flirtatious behaviour and style of dress that they believe are also used as clues to a woman’s fertility status.
It is feasible these changes in vocal femininity occur primarily or exclusively during social communicative tasks – raising the intriguing possibility cues of ovulation appear more during social interactions and could serve a communicative function. These results are consistent with other findings revealing women’s tendency during high fertility to accentuate sexually differentiated traits such as wearing fashionable clothing and preferring male masculinity.
Dr Bryant, whose findings are published in Biology Letters, said future research should explore contextual effects on vocal production in association with the ovulatory cycle.
He said: “Manipulations involving the presence of attractive others, speech content, and other stimuli before and during recording sessions might reveal systematic communicative signals – which in turn should be detectable and found attractive by judges.”
You might also enjoy reading:-
- Fertile women have more seductive voices
- Hips do lie: A sexy walk is intended to deceive men
- High hormone levels in women linked to infidelity
- Lap dancers ‘on heat’ get big tips
- Fertile women most receptive to pick-up lines
Posted by Jonathan in Psychology, Sociobiology