If you’re a man and you’re having trouble meeting a woman that likes you, or if you’re simply into science, you might be curious about what science says makes men more attractive to women. Of course, since we’re such evolutionary advanced creatures, there are plenty of things that do that. But we’re about so much more than just evolution.
While it’s true that evolution affects humans just as much as it affects any other animal on the planet, we have the advantage of having much more developed mental and emotional capacities. This can lead to some pretty interesting social situations, as our basic instincts may perceive someone as attractive, while our logical and emotional mind doesn’t.
So what are some of these primal things that may be found attractive by members of the opposite species? Well, things like pheromones, a natural musky odor (a mild one), as well as certain features have been long associated with attractiveness, and so has a gruff, deep voice in men.
But according to a new study from the Penn State University, a deep voice in men is linked to dominance, and not to attracting the opposite sex, as was believed up until now. It turns out that at least from an evolutionary point of view, males who talk in a raspy, deep voice do so for reasons of asserting dominance over other males.
The study was primarily performed by analyzing the differences between various types of primates around the world, analyzing their vocal and mating patterns. But it also focused on a controlled laboratory study, which had women and men rate each other’s attractiveness based on just voices.
According to David Puts, an anthropologist with Penn State and lead author of the study,
We find that masculine traits in humans are not the same as, say, in peacocks where the beautiful tail attracts a mate. For example, beards make men more dominant-looking, scarier and seemingly more dangerous, but most women prefer clean-shaven men.
So how did the study proceed and what did it show?
Well, the researchers recorded more than 500 men and women speaking and then played the recordings back to over 1,100 men and women different from the ones recorded. The female voices were rated for attractiveness by men, and the male voices were rated for dominance and attractiveness by women.
While it’s true that women rated males with a deep voice as more attractive, it was not consistent in any way. And nor was it rated for dominance consistently. Instead, rougher, deeper male voices were consistently rated as dominant by other males. This means that the entire evolutionary process of developing a deep voice was owed to males needing to assert their dominance over other males.
Image source: Public Domain Pictures
