Deep male voices not so much sexy as intimidating

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-05/ps-dmv050516.php

Public Release: 5-May-2016
Deep male voices not so much sexy as intimidating
Penn State

Male voices are not deeply pitched in order to attract female mates, but instead serve to intimidate the competition, according to a team of researchers studying a wide variety of primates including humans.

"We wanted to determine if sexual selection had produced sex differences in humans and closely related species," said David A. Puts, associate professor of anthropology, Penn State. "If similar vocal sex differences appear across species with similar levels of mating competition, then we infer that sexual selection produced these sex differences."

The researchers conducted three studies and found that a deep-pitched male voice was seen as dominant by other males, but had a smaller impact on attracting females. They also found that the sexual dimorphism of vocal pitch -- how different the two sexes were -- was greater in humans than in any other ape species measured in their study. They report their results in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

"We find that masculine traits in humans are not the same as, say, in peacocks where the beautiful tail attracts a mate," said Puts. "For example, beards make men more dominant looking, scarier and seemingly more dangerous, but most women prefer clean-shaven men." Human male traits imply physical aggression and formidability and seem to provide competitive advantages in fighting or threatening other men more than they help attract women.

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The researchers found that fundamental frequency predicted men's perceived dominance over other men, and to a lesser degree their attractiveness to women, but that it did not predict women's attractiveness to men for either short- or long-term romantic relationships.

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