However, a high female voice does not increase the attractiveness and perceived femininity, she explained. A team led by Krumpholz from the Institute for the Psychology of Cognition, Emotion and Methods at the University of Vienna played videos with 20 speaking faces of 18 to 45-year-old women to 104 heterosexual 19- to 38-year-old men. “The pitch of the voice was changed so that the participants saw the same videos twice, but once with a slightly higher voice,” the researchers explain in a broadcast.
The increased pitch of voice meant that the faces were judged to be six months younger on average. Voice pitch had no influence on the assessment of attractiveness, femininity and health. Accordingly, the face is decisive here, and the voice meaningless.
“Until now, it was assumed that higher-pitched female voices are perceived as more attractive because the pitch of the voice is an indicator of youthfulness, femininity and health,” says Krumpholz. “These are things that men should appreciate in women from an evolutionary perspective, as they tend to increase reproductive success.” This would supposedly increase the perceived attractiveness. “So the fact that we didn’t find this in the study is rather surprising and calls these theories into question,” says Krumpholz. Alternative explanations should therefore be considered and tested.
Source: Nachrichten
