Voice Pitch Alters Mate-choice Relevant Perception In Hunter-gatherers

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Also Included In: Fertility;  Genetics
Article Date: 03 Dec 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Scientists Coren Apicella and David Feinberg studied preferences for voice pitch in African hunter-gatherers. While women with masculine voices were perceived to be better gatherers, men preferred feminine-voiced women as mates, reflecting a preference for youth and fertility.

Masculine-voiced men were deemed better hunters and women who were not breastfeeding preferred these men as mates.

Nursing women, instead, preferred feminine-voiced men. This suggests that women experience shifts in their preferences so that during times of increased fertility they value traits that signal dominance and good genes while signals of investment become more attractive during times of decreased fertility (e.g. nursing).

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences