How would you like your partner to sound?

The Rules of Attraction May Turn on Our Voices
by Sean Bowditch


Morning Edition, January 4, 2008 · Anthropologist Coren Apicella wanted to learn the role a person's voice plays in his or her attractiveness to potential mates.

Last summer, she flew halfway around the world with a tape recorder to study the Hadza people of Tanzania.

In the first phase of her research, Apicella invited a group of Hadza men into her Land Rover and recorded them saying "hello" in Swahili. Then she played some of the voices for a group of Hadza women, asking them which they preferred.

Apicella found the women preferred the men with the lower voices.

And that paralleled another of her findings. The Hadza men with deeper voices also had more children than their squeaky counterparts. But she says voice alone probably doesn't explain that.

"Why there's this relationship, we're not entirely sure yet," Apicella said. "It could be that these men have greater access to mates. Maybe these men that have deeper voices have higher levels of testosterone. Or maybe they're better hunters and they're able to bring more food home to their wives."

And what did Hadza men prefer in a voice? It turns out they found the women with higher pitch most attractive.

But surprisingly, the men said those same women wouldn't necessarily be the best food gatherers.

"We found that the men actually thought the women with the lower-pitched voice or the deeper voices were the better gatherers," Apicella said.

Still, psychologist Susan Hughes says this research suggests you can tell a great deal about a potential mate just from his or her voice.

"I think this study does speak to the fact that voices are signaling some biologically relevant information to potential mates," Hughes said — information like fertility or the ability to put food on the table.

But Hughes, a professor at Albright College in Pennsylvania, says it's unclear if men and women in all cultures would share the preferences of the Hadza.



So the question is.........what type of voice do the ladies on this board find most titilating?

Also....for the brothas.....what is most attractive...a woman with a high and squeaky cute voice....or a scratchier...slightly deeper...."sexy" type voice?

 

We had a thread about this at one point - I think it was in the Ladies area.

I definitely melt for the deep voice.

 

High or deep [female type deep] as long as it's soft... I'm good.

I hate that nagging sounding voice however. Think Rosie O'Donnell.

Why no poll for us guys???

 

You know who has a great voice? The guy who hosts Dirty Jobs, I think his name is Mike Rowe. Low and smoooooth.

My voice is a little on the low side. Usually when I get a cold by the time the sinus part is over my voice is a little raspy. I almost always get compliments from guys when I'm going thru my whisky voice stage!

 

Deeper the better, please.

 

I definately have to go for the deeper voice, it just makes me melt!

 

welcome to the boards, steffie

 

some people have told me that I sound just like Dennis Rodman

:shock: :lol:

 

Very True

I would definitely have to say I prefer the deep voice, such as your's baby (directed at theChosenOne, my boyfriend:smt060). I think this article is right, because there is something so sexy and inviting about a smooth deep voice.

 

The Hadza have some of the oldest (Y-chromosomal/mitochondrial) DNA in the world, I've always been interested in them.

I read that women prefer men with deep voices when they are at their most fertile (when ovulating) and men with higher voices when they were pregnant. The reason is because most women (supposedly) prefer high-testosterone, very masculine men for short-term, sexual affairs because they are more fertile but they prefer more 'feminine' or sensitive males for long-term relationships because they (stereotypically) make better partners and better fathers. Testosterone depresses the immune system and is probably the reason why men don't live as long as women do, if a man can have high levels of testosterone but appear to be very healthy despite it, he most likely has high quality genes. I like women with high pitched, very feminine sounding voices but it's not important.

 

i love a smooth deep voice...especially when he is telling me exactly what i want to hear...it's that voice that makes you want to talk for hours...his words and sound become like foreplay...

 

Oh yes the deeper the better.
I had a bf, where it did not matter what he was talking, as long as he was talking......

 

It doesn't matter the kind of voice my man has, as long as it fits him...fits his look, fits his personality....I like men with a range of voices.

However, if I had to pick one, I'd go with a George Clooney-ish tone.

 

what is clooney's tone anyway? where would you put him?

 

LOL. Good question! I didn't say because I don't know...

Maybe baritone? Hmmm....

 

Hmm, well, my man has my favorite male voice and he sort of sounds like Tupac. Sooo, which one would that be?

 

I've been told I have a very deep voice. When I listen to a recording of myself, I really hear it lol

 

I hate hearing myself recorded. I don't think I sound anything like that. I sound like an 8 year old with a cold or something. :smt011

 

Me too lol

 

Me, three.

To answer the thread, I like a man with a deep, soothing, read me a bedtime story voice.