No matter how sophisticated and complex we get as a species, we’re still influenced by evolutionary drives millions of years in the making. Case in point: A study from 2011 argues that human women are seemingly drawn to deep male voices. But is this study reliable, or just playing on our preconceptions about how men and women relate to each other?A red deer stag roars in Richmond Park, London.
Researchers at the University of Aberdeen ran an experiment in which 45 women were shown an image, which was then named by a recorded voice. This recording was either of a low pitched male, a high pitched male, or a female voice that had been manipulated to sound like a male. Afterward, they were then shown a pair of similar images – one they had seen and one they hadn’t – and asked to identify which one they had been originally shown. They also rated which voices were their favorite. They later ran a similar experiment using real male and female voices and another 46 women.
In both cases, the results were striking. The women consistently preferred the deep-voiced males, and they were more likely to pick the right object when they had originally seen it paired with a low pitched male.
Researchers at the University of Aberdeen ran an experiment in which 45 women were shown an image, which was then named by a recorded voice. This recording was either of a low pitched male, a high pitched male, or a female voice that had been manipulated to sound like a male. Afterward, they were then shown a pair of similar images – one they had seen and one they hadn’t – and asked to identify which one they had been originally shown. They also rated which voices were their favorite. They later ran a similar experiment using real male and female voices and another 46 women.
In both cases, the results were striking. The women consistently preferred the deep-voiced males, and they were more likely to pick the right object when they had originally seen it paired with a low pitched male.
