No abstract

Prior work has emphasized independent effects of voice pitch and apparent vocal tract length on women’s preferences for men’s voices. An interaction between the effects of pitch and apparent vocal tract length on male vocal attractiveness might be expected, however, given interactions between the effects of voice pitch and apparent vocal tract length on perceptions of body size, age, and sex. Here, we present empirical evidence for such an interaction. Women preferred low pitch in men’s voices more when associated with large vocal tracts than when associated with small vocal tracts and preferred large vocal tracts in men’s voices more when associated with low pitch than when associated with high pitch. Collectively, these findings demonstrate integration of different vocal cues in women’s mate preferences, potentially allowing women to better assess the quality of potential mates.

Vocal and facial masculinity are cues to underlying testosterone in men and influence women's mate preferences. Consistent with the proposal that facial and vocal masculinity signal common information about men, prior work has revealed correlated female preferences for male facial and vocal masculinity. Previous studies have assessed women's preferences for male facial and vocal masculinity by presenting faces and voices independently and using static face stimuli. By contrast, here we presented women with short video clips in which male faces and voices were simultaneously manipulated in masculinity. We found that women who preferred masculine faces also preferred masculine voices. Furthermore, women whose faces were rated as relatively more attractive preferred both facial and vocal masculinity more than did women whose faces were rated as less attractive. These findings complement other evidence for cross-modal masculinity preferences among women and demonstrate that preferences observed in studies using still images and/or independently presented vocal stimuli are also observed when dynamic faces and voices are displayed simultaneously in video format