Ditch that baritone: Deep male voices more intimidating than sexy

Men with deep voices might be a hit among women, but a new research suggests that a low pitch is more likely to have evolved to scare the competition off.

Men with deep voices might be a hit among women, but a new research suggests that a low pitch is more likely to have evolved to scare the competition off.

Researcher David A. Puts from the Penn State said, “We wanted to determine if sexual selection had produced sex differences in humans and closely related species. If similar vocal sex differences appear across species with similar levels of mating competition, then we infer that sexual selection produced these sex differences.”

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The researchers conducted three studies and found that a deep-pitched male voice was seen as dominant by other males, but had a smaller impact on attracting females.

They also found that the sexual dimorphism of vocal pitch -- how different the two sexes were was greater in humans than in any other ape species measured in their study. “We find that masculine traits in humans are not the same as, say, in peacocks where the beautiful tail attracts a mate,” added Puts. The results appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.