Is That a Whistle in Your Throat or Are You Happy to See Me?

So much for the idea that women have concealed ovulation. Not only do their bodies become more symmetrical, become bigger risk takers, dress more provocatively and become more interested in sex, their voices get higher in pitch as well.

The British journal Biology Letters published a paper from a team at the University of California Los Angeles that claim that women subconsciously raise the pitch of their voices in the two days before ovulation, when they are most fertile. At the other end of the spectrum, their voices are more hoarse near menstruation. A person's voice is an important part of sexual attraction, and women are known to be attracted to men with deep voices. (See: The February 19, 2011 post "Cant Get Enough of Your Love Babe" to see how deep voiced men have more children.) Women were asked to speak into recorders at various points in their cycles, saying "Hello, I'm a student at UCLA." This introduction is the only time that their voices raised pitch. I guess first impressions really are the most important.

Another study published in the Journal of Evolutionary Psychology says that women have a higher pitch when speaking to a man they are attracted to. Forty five women were asked to look at a picture of a masculine looking man and then pretend to leave the following message on an answering machine: "Hi, we met at the bar last night. I was just calling you to see if you wanted to go out sometime. Call me back." They were then asked to repeat the process after looking at the feminized face of a man. A separate question was asked of the women, to determine how attractive they found men on the masculine/feminine spectrum.

The pitch of their voice supported the researchers hypothesis. Women attracted to masculine men spoke in higher tones when leaving them a message and women with a preference for feminized men also spoke to them in higher tones.

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