Preference for Leaders with Masculine Voices Holds in the Case of Feminine Leadership Roles

Human voice pitch research has focused on perceptions of attractiveness, strength, and social dominance. Here we examine the influence of pitch on selection of leaders, and whether this influence varies by leadership role. Male and female leaders with lower-pitched (i.e., masculine) voices are generally preferred by both men and women. We asked whether this preference shifts to favor higher-pitch (i.e., feminine) voices within the specific context of leadership positions that are typically held by women (i.e., feminine leadership roles). In hypothetical elections for two such positions, men and women listened to pairs of male and female voices that differed only in pitch, and were asked which of each pair they would vote for. As in previous studies, men and women preferred female candidates with masculine voices. Likewise, men preferred men with masculine voices. Women, however, did not discriminate between male voices. Overall, contrary to research showing that perceptions of voice pitch can be influenced by social context, these results suggest that the influence of voice pitch on perceptions of leadership capacity is largely consistent across different domains of leadership.     

Low Pitched Voices Are Perceived as Masculine and Attractive but Do They Predict Semen Quality in Men?

Women find masculinity in men's faces, bodies, and voices attractive, and women's preferences for men's masculine features are thought to be biological adaptations for finding a high quality mate. Fertility is an important aspect of mate quality. Here we test the phenotype-linked fertility hypothesis, which proposes that male secondary sexual characters are positively related to semen quality, allowing females to obtain direct benefits from mate choice. Specifically, we examined women's preferences for men's voice pitch, and its relationship with men's semen quality. Consistent with previous voice research, women judged lower pitched voices as more masculine and more attractive. However men with lower pitched voices did not have better semen quality. On the contrary, men whose voices were rated as more attractive tended to have lower concentrations of sperm in their ejaculate. These data are more consistent with a trade off between sperm production and male investment in competing for and attracting females, than with the phenotype-linked fertility hypothesis.     

Menstrual cycle, trait estrogen level, and masculinity preferences in the human voice

Men with low testosterone (feminine men) invest in relationships and offspring more than men with high testosterone (masculine men). Women's attraction to testosterone dependent traits (e.g. masculine face shape) is enhanced during the late-follicular, fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. Attractive, feminine women have stronger preferences for masculine men as possible long-term partners than less attractive, masculine women. We manipulated 2 testosterone related vocal traits (voice pitch and apparent vocal-tract length) in voices to test if women prefer masculinized men's voices to feminized men's voices; masculinity preferences are enhanced at the fertile (late-follicular) menstrual cycle phase; the amount that masculinity preferences shift cyclically relates to average estrone-3-glucuronide concentration (the primary urinary metabolite of estrone, E3G). We found women displayed general masculinity preferences for men's voices; masculinity preferences were greater in the fertile (late-follicular) phase of the cycle than the non-fertile (early-follicular and luteal) phase; and this effect was most pronounced for women with low average E3G concentration. As feminine women (i.e. those with high average E3G levels) are most able to obtain investment even from masculine men, these women may not need to change their mating preference or strategy during the menstrual cycle as much as masculine women.     

The influence of voice pitch on perceptions of trustworthiness across social contexts

Perceptions of trustworthiness are an important predictor of social outcomes, such as monetary exchanges, criminal sentencing, and the attainment of leadership roles. Higher testosterone levels predict both lower voice pitch and untrustworthy behavior, across economic and mating contexts. Here, we tested the influence of voice pitch on perceptions of trustworthiness across general, economic, and mating-related (mate poaching, infidelity) contexts. We found that the context of trust and the sex of the speaker both changed how voice pitch affected perceived trustworthiness. Listeners were more trusting of higher-pitched female voices in economic and mate poaching contexts, but trusted lower-pitched female voices more in general. Listeners were more trusting of higher-pitched male voices in economic and mating-related contexts, and also tended to perceive higher-pitched male voices as more trustworthy in general. Listeners' attributions of trustworthiness were generally unrelated to perceptions of attractiveness from similarly-pitched voices, indicating that trust-related attributions were independent of preferences for higher- or lower-pitched voices. Furthermore, perceptions of general trustworthiness were associated with perceptions of economic trust, but were not consistently associated with perceptions of mating-related trust. These findings provide evidence that voice pitch alone is sufficient to influence trust-related perceptions, and demonstrates that listeners use voice pitch as a cue to trustworthy behavior.     

Vocal characteristics of presidential candidates can predict the outcome of actual elections

During political elections, voters rely on various cues that signal good social leadership, such as indicators of physical strength and masculinity. In adult men, masculine traits are related to testosterone levels, and one of those traits is low-pitched voice. Hence, lower pitch in a presidential candidate may be related to the election's outcome. This prediction is supported by experimental evidence showing that people prefer to vote for a candidate with a low-pitched voice. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between presidential candidates' vocal characteristics and actual election outcomes in 51 presidential elections held across the world. After analysis of the voices of opposing candidates, results showed that winners had lower-pitched voices with less pitch variability. Moreover, regression analysis revealed an interaction effect of voice pitch and voice pitch variability on the election outcome. Candidates with lower-pitched voices had greater likelihood of winning the election if they had higher pitch variability. This study extends previous findings, shows the importance of assessing vocal characteristics other than voice pitch, and offers external validity for the experimental evidence that candidates' vocal characteristics are related to the election outcome.     

Voice pitch influences voting behavior

It may be adaptive for voters to recognize good leadership qualities among politicians. Men with lower-pitched voices are found to be more dominant and attractive than are men with higher-pitched voices. Candidate attractiveness and vocal quality relate to voting behavior, but no study has tested the influence of voice pitch on voting-related perceptions. We tested whether voice pitch influenced perceptions of politicians and how these perceptions related to voting behavior. In Study 1, we manipulated voice pitch of recordings of US presidents and asked participants to attribute personality traits to the voices and to choose the voice they preferred to vote for. We found that lower-pitched voices were associated with favorable personality traits more often than were higher-pitched voices and that people preferred to vote for politicians with lower-pitched rather than higher-pitched voices. Furthermore, lower voice pitch was more strongly associated with physical prowess than with integrity in a wartime voting scenario. Thus, sensitivity to vocal cues to dominance was heightened during wartime. In Study 2, we found that participants preferred to vote for the candidate with the lower-pitched voice when given the choice between two unfamiliar men's voices speaking a neutral sentence. Taken together, our results suggest that candidates' voice pitch has an important influence on voting behavior and that men with lower-pitched voices may have an advantage in political elections.     

Sounds like a winner: voice pitch influences perception of leadership capacity in both men and women

It is well known that non-human animals respond to information encoded in vocal signals, and the same can be said of humans. Specifically, human voice pitch affects how speakers are perceived. As such, does voice pitch affect how we perceive and select our leaders? To answer this question, we recorded men and women saying ‘I urge you to vote for me this November’. Each recording was manipulated digitally to yield a higher- and lower-pitched version of the original. We then asked men and women to vote for either the lower- or higher-pitched version of each voice. Our results show that both men and women select male and female leaders with lower voices. These findings suggest that men and women with lower-pitched voices may be more successful in obtaining positions of leadership. This might also suggest that because women, on average, have higher-pitched voices than men, voice pitch could be a factor that contributes to fewer women holding leadership roles than men. Additionally, while people are free to choose their leaders, these results clearly demonstrate that these choices cannot be understood in isolation from biological influences.     

Integrating cues of social interest and voice pitch in men's preferences for women's voices

Most previous studies of vocal attractiveness have focused on preferences for physical characteristics of voices such as pitch. Here we examine the content of vocalizations in interaction with such physical traits, finding that vocal cues of social interest modulate the strength of men's preferences for raised pitch in women's voices. Men showed stronger preferences for raised pitch when judging the voices of women who appeared interested in the listener than when judging the voices of women who appeared relatively disinterested in the listener. These findings show that voice preferences are not determined solely by physical properties of voices and that men integrate information about voice pitch and the degree of social interest expressed by women when forming voice preferences. Women's preferences for raised pitch in women's voices were not modulated by cues of social interest, suggesting that the integration of cues of social interest and voice pitch when men judge the attractiveness of women's voices may reflect adaptations that promote efficient allocation of men's mating effort.     

Women's evaluations of other women's natural body odor depend on target's fertility status

A large research literature indicates that men perceive women as more attractive when they are at high fertility than at low fertility within the ovulatory cycle. However, it remains unclear whether women also perceive women as more attractive at high fertility. This study examined women's ratings of samples of natural body odor collected from naturally-cycling women at high and low fertility within the cycle and from hormonal contraceptive-using women at mid-cycle. Like men, women rated naturally-cycling women's high-fertility scent samples as more attractive than their low-fertility samples. Women rated hormonal contraceptive (HC) users' scent samples as more attractive than naturally-cycling women's high- and low-fertility samples, though the difference between HC and high-fertility samples was statistically significant only when raters were treated as the unit of analysis. These findings reveal a potentially important role for scent communication in women's perceptions of other women and are consistent with the notion that the ovulatory cycle could influence women's interactions with one another. The findings also highlight the need for rigorous investigations of the possible impacts of hormonal contraception on women's attractiveness and social relationships with other women.     

Men's Preferences for Women's Femininity in Dynamic Cross-Modal Stimuli

Men generally prefer feminine women''s faces and voices over masculine women''s faces and voices, and these cross-modal preferences are positively correlated. Men''s preferences for female facial and vocal femininity have typically been investigated independently by presenting soundless still images separately from audio-only vocal recordings. For the first time ever, we presented men with short video clips in which dynamic faces and voices were simultaneously manipulated in femininity/masculinity. Men preferred feminine men''s faces over masculine men''s faces, and preferred masculine men''s voices over feminine men''s voices. We found that men preferred feminine women''s faces and voices over masculine women''s faces and voices. Men''s attractiveness ratings of both feminine and masculine faces were increased by the addition of vocal femininity. Also, men''s attractiveness ratings of feminine and masculine voices were increased by the addition of facial femininity present in the video. Men''s preferences for vocal and facial femininity were significantly and positively correlated when stimuli were female, but not when they were male. Our findings complement other evidence for cross-modal femininity preferences among male raters, and show that preferences observed in studies using still images and/or independently presented vocal stimuli are also observed when dynamic faces and voices are displayed simultaneously in video format.     

Voice pitch predicts reproductive success in male hunter-gatherers

The validity of evolutionary explanations of vocal sexual dimorphism hinges upon whether or not individuals with more sexually dimorphic voices have higher reproductive success than individuals with less dimorphic voices. However, due to modern birth control methods, these data are rarely described, and mating success is often used as a second-rate proxy. Here, we test whether voice pitch predicts reproductive success, number of children born and child mortality in an evolutionarily relevant population of hunter-gatherers. While we find that voice pitch is not related to reproductive outcomes in women, we find that men with low voice pitch have higher reproductive success and more children born to them. However, voice pitch in men does not predict child mortality. These findings suggest that the association between voice pitch and reproductive success in men is mediated by differential access to fecund women. Furthermore, they show that there is currently selection pressure for low-pitch voices in men.     

Female Preferences for Male Vocal and Facial Masculinity in Videos

Vocal and facial masculinity are cues to underlying testosterone in men and influence women’s mate preferences. Consistent with the proposal that facial and vocal masculinity signal common information about men, prior work has revealed correlated female preferences for male facial and vocal masculinity. Previous studies have assessed women’s preferences for male facial and vocal masculinity by presenting faces and voices independently and using static face stimuli. By contrast, here we presented women with short video clips in which male faces and voices were simultaneously manipulated in masculinity. We found that women who preferred masculine faces also preferred masculine voices. Furthermore, women whose faces were rated as relatively more attractive preferred both facial and vocal masculinity more than did women whose faces were rated as less attractive. These findings complement other evidence for cross‐modal masculinity preferences among women and demonstrate that preferences observed in studies using still images and/or independently presented vocal stimuli are also observed when dynamic faces and voices are displayed simultaneously in video format.     

Social dialect and men's voice pitch influence women's mate preferences

Low male voice pitch may communicate potential benefits for offspring in the form of heritable health and/or dominance, whereas access to resources may be indicated by correlates of socioeconomic status, such as sociolinguistic features. Here, we examine if voice pitch and social dialect influence women's perceptions of men's socioeconomic status and attractiveness. In Study 1, women perceived lower pitched male voices as higher in socioeconomic status than higher pitched male voices. In Study 2, women independently perceived lower pitched voices and higher status sociolinguistic dialects as higher in socioeconomic status and attractiveness. We also found a significant interaction wherein women preferred lower pitched men's voices more often when dialects were lower in sociolinguistic status than when they were higher in sociolinguistic status. Women also perceived lower pitched voices as higher in socioeconomic status more often when dialects were higher in sociolinguistic status than when lower in sociolinguistic status. Finally, women's own self-rated socioeconomic status was positively related to their preferences for voices with higher status sociolinguistic dialects, but not to their preferences for voice pitch. Hence, women's preferences for traits associated with potentially biologically heritable benefits, such as low voice pitch, are moderated by the presence of traits associated with resource accrual, such as social dialect markers. However, women's preferences for language markers of resource accrual may be functionally independent from preferences for potential biological indicators of heritable benefits, such as voice pitch.     

Voice pitch alters mate-choice-relevant perception in hunter–gatherers

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. Here we test attributions to and preferences for voices with raised and lowered pitch in hunter–gatherers. 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. However, women who were currently breastfeeding had stronger preferences for higher pitched male voices whereas women not currently breastfeeding preferred lower pitched voices. As testosterone is considered a costly signal associated with dominance, heritable immunity to infection and low paternal investment, women''s preferences potentially reflect a trade-off between securing good genes and paternal investment. Men''s preferences for higher pitched female voices are probably due to an evolved preference for markers of fecundity, reflected in voice pitch.     

Preferences for very low and very high voice pitch in humans

Manipulations of voice pitch have been shown to alter attractiveness ratings, but whether preferences extend to very low or very high voice pitch is unknown. Here, we manipulated voice pitch in averaged men's and women's voices by 2 Hz intervals to create a range of male and female voices speaking monopthong vowel sounds and spanning a range of frequencies from normal to very low and very high pitch. With these voices, we used the method of constant stimuli to measure preferences for voice. Nineteen university students (ages: 20-25) participated in three experiments. On average, men preferred high-pitched women's voices to low-pitched women's voices across all frequencies tested. On average, women preferred men's voices lowered in pitch, but did not prefer very low men's voices. The results of this study may reflect selection pressures for men's and women's voices, and shed light on a perceptual link between voice pitch and vocal attractiveness.     

Vocal attractiveness and voluntarily pitch-shifted voices

Previous studies have found that using software to pitch shift people's voices can boost their perceived attractiveness to opposite-sex adults: men prefer women's voices when pitch-shifted up, and women prefer men's voices when pitch-shifted down. In this study, we sought to determine whether speakers could affect their perceived vocal attractiveness by voluntarily shifting their own voices to reach specific target pitches (+20 Hz or −20 Hz, a pitch increment that is based on prior research). Two sets of Chinese college students participated in the research: 115 who served as speakers whose voices were recorded, and 167 who served as raters who evaluated the speakers' voices. We found that when female speakers increased their pitch they were judged as more attractive to both opposite-sex and same-sex raters. An additional unexpected finding was that male speakers tended to rate other males who shifted their voice up in pitch as more attractive. These findings suggest that voluntary pitch shifts can affect attractiveness, but that they do not fully match the patterns observed when pitch shifting is done digitally.     

Men's facial masculinity predicts changes in their female partners' sexual interests across the ovulatory cycle,whereas men's intelligence does not

A substantial body of work demonstrates that women's mate preferences change across the ovulatory cycle. When fertile in their cycles, women are especially attracted to masculine features (e.g., faces, voices, bodies), socially dominant behavior, and male scents associated with body symmetry and social dominance. Women may also find intelligent men particularly attractive when fertile, though findings are mixed. Related research shows that, on average, romantically-involved women report stronger sexual attraction to men other than their pair-bond partners, but not partners, when fertile, and especially when their partners lack features fertile women prefer (e.g., symmetry). In the current study, we examined whether women's patterns of sexual interests across the cycle are similarly moderated by partners' facial masculinity, facial attractiveness, and intelligence. Results revealed predicted effects of male partners’ facial masculinity but none for partners’ intelligence. Facial attractiveness may have effects, but we find no evidence that it does so independently of facial masculinity.     

Elevated recognition accuracy for low-pitched male voices in men with higher threat potential: Further evidence for the retaliation-cost model in humans

For humans, voice pitch is highly flexible and, when lowered, makes male speakers sound more dominant, intimidating, threatening, and likely to aggress. Importantly, pitch lowering could not have evolved as a threat signal with these effects on signal receivers unless it were honest on average. Drawing on Enquist's retaliation-cost model, we tested the hypothesis that heterosexual men high in threat potential will show enhanced memory for low-pitched male voices when mating motives were activated. Supporting this hypothesis, we found that heterosexual Chinese males higher in trait aggressiveness (Experiment 1) and heterosexual U.S. males higher in upper-body strength (Experiment 2) were more accurate in distinguishing between previously heard and unheard low- but not high-pitched male voices under a mating-motive prime. We believe that this enhanced recognition accuracy for low-pitched male voices facilitates retaliation for men with high threat potential, and thereby serves to probe the honesty of pitch lowering as an aggressive signal.     

Women’s Preference for Masculine Traits Is Disrupted by Images of Male-on-Female Aggression

Women’s preferences for men’s masculinized faces and voices were assessed after women (n = 331) were primed with images of male-on-male aggression, male-on-female aggression, pathogens, and neutral scenes. Male-on-male aggression and pathogen primes were associated with increased preference for masculine traits, but the same effect emerged in the neutral condition. We show the increased preference for masculine traits was due to repeated exposure to these traits, not the priming images themselves. Images of male-on-female aggression were an exception; these elicited feelings of disgust and anger appeared to disrupt the preference for masculinized traits. The results suggest women process men’s facial and vocal traits as signals of aggressive potential and lose any preference for these traits with cues indicating men might direct this aggression toward them.