14 DAY TRIAL // Studies on the laws of attraction that govern the way we select our mates, are of tremendous importance for the field of evolutionary studies. Understanding them can lead scientists to develop new theories on the “engines” that drive our evolution, thus helping to explain the history of our species. In a recent such study, experts determined that women with high-pitched voices tend to be more attracted to men with deeper, lower voices, LiveScience reports.
“People obviously prefer to marry and date people they consider attractive, but also are more likely to cooperate with attractive individuals, prefer to hire attractive people and even prefer to vote for those they think are attractive. So, by understanding the factors that influence attractiveness judgments, we're really getting insights into something that's one of the most powerful driving forces behind social interactions,” explains University of Aberdeen in Scotland psychologist Benedict Jones, who was a member of the research team behind the investigation.
In previous studies, it has been revealed that high-pitched voices were a clear indicator of a woman's estrogen levels. The higher the pitch, the higher the hormone levels, and researchers hypothesized that this alerted men unconsciously as to their prospective mate's fertility and health. In addition, these women were also deemed to have more attractive faces, when male test subjects had to rate them in face-voice-associated tests. Details of the current study appear in the April 23 online issue of the esteemed scientific journal Behavioral Ecology.
Scientists have also found the women generally tend to prefer men with square jaws and thick eyebrow, which are just some of the few traits generally associated with manliness. Researchers hypothesize that the females may themselves be unconsciously opting for better offspring, given that the presence of these characteristics in men may be an indicator of health and adaptation. This is corroborated by statistics, which show that deep-voiced men tend to have more children, on average, than other males.
“Over the years, many philosophers have suggested that it's impossible to understand beauty and attraction, largely because beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Our recent work shows that, although it's certainly true that people often differ in the types of people that they find most attractive, these idiosyncratic tastes can, to some extent, be understood and even predicted,” says Jones.
“The findings suggest that women's own attractiveness in some way influences their preferences for masculine traits in men's voices. Effects like those in our study might simply reflect people finding their place in the mating market and taking that into account when judging others' attractiveness. What's a little bit surprising is that we see these types of effects in studies like ours where people are judging the attractiveness of people they will never meet, never mind attempt to enter into a relationship with. Awareness of our own market value seems to be so entrenched that we take it into account even in situations where we really don't necessarily need to,” the expert concludes.