Study: Women prefer deep voices
By Contributor
By David A. Gabel, ENN
For all men reading this article, remember to clear your throat and focus before speaking to the next woman you see.
According to a new scientific study, women biologically prefer men with lower-pitch voices. Not only do they prefer this in men who they would consider a mate, but a woman’s memory is improved when listening to a deep male voice rather than a high male voice.
The study has been published in the online journal, Memory & Cognition, by researchers from the University of Aberdeen in the UK.
David Smith and his colleagues from the University of Aberdeen conducted a series of two experiments to prove their hypothesis that a woman’s memory is sensitive to the pitch of a man’s voice, which is important in selecting a mate because it can indicate genetic quality in a long term partner.
According to the study, when women evaluate a partner, they rely on their memories to rapidly provide information about the attributes and past behavior of potential partners.
The first experiment consisted of 45 women being shown an image of a single object while listening to the name of the object spoken by a high or low pitch male (or manipulated female) voice.
Then they were shown two similar but not identical versions of the same object and asked to identify them. They were also asked which voice they preferred.
In the second experiment, 46 different women listened to manipulated voices and also real male and female voices to see how they would rate the voices. They were also scored on their object memory.
The study found that women strongly prefer deep male voices and remembered objects better when introduced by the deep voice.
“Our findings demonstrate that women’s memory is enhanced with lower pitch male voices, compared with the less attractive raised pitch male voices,” concluded David Smith. “Our two experiments indicate for the first time that signals from the opposite-sex that are important for mate choice also affect the accuracy of women’s memory.”
So guys remember, next time you run into that girl or woman you like, keep your voice calm and under control.
And for those who feel their wives don’t listen, give your voice some more bass and maybe it will resonate a bit better in her head. Just don’t make your voice sound fake, or they might be laughing instead of listening.
- Link to published article: http://www.springerlink.com/content/j2t4m3882n1m6465/
