14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists were recently able to determine that both men and women rely on analyzing the voice of their mate in order to assess the risk they are subjecting themselves to in regards to being cheated on.
Men with lower voices and women with higher-pitched ones are often considered to be the ones most likely to cheat on their relationship partner, researchers discovered in a new series of experiments.
According to the new conclusions, it would appear that the analysis of a prospective mate's voice is even linked to the likelihood that of him or her being selected by a person of the opposite gender.
Men generally tend to think that women with higher-pitched, more melodic voices are the most likely to cheat. Conversely, women believe that men with low, “manly” voices are bound to stray from a prospective relationship.
This is the first time ever that the connection between voice pitch and perceived infidelity is analyzed to this extent. The research has some broader implications, in the sense that it casts some light on our mate-selecting mechanisms, and on the factors influencing them.
Researchers write in the latest online issue of the esteemed journal Evolutionary Psychology that voice analysis may have evolved as a mechanism of teasing out those likely to cheat from other viable candidates for forming a new couple.
“In terms of sexual strategy, we found that men and women will use voice pitch as a warning sign of future betrayal,” explains McMaster University graduate student Jillian O’Connor, quoted by PsychCentral.
“So the more attractive the voice – a higher pitch for women and lower pitch for men – the more likely the chances he or she will cheat,” adds the student, who was also the lead author of the research paper.
“Infidelity is costly with the emotional impact, financial costs and potential loss of the family unit. But this suggests that through the evolutionary process, we have learned ways to avoid partners who may be unfaithful as a protection mechanism,” O'Connor goes on to say.
In the experiments, participants were asked to listen twice to the voices of a man and a woman. In the first instance, the sounds were artificially modified to appear higher-pitched, while in the second they were taken to a lower pitch.
Test subjects were then asked to rate how likely was each of the four voices they heard to belong to people that would cheat on their partners.
“The reason voice pitch influences perceptions of cheating is likely due to the relationship between pitch, hormones and infidelity,” explains study advisor Dr. David Feinberg, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behavior at McMaster.