Category: Social psychology

Trying to sound attractive is easier for women than men.

Speaking slowly makes people sound more intelligent, research finds.

A lower tone also makes both sexes sound more attractive.

Women asked to talk in a more attractive way for the study automatically lowered the pitch of their voice and made it sound more breathy — which men find attractive.

While women had no trouble changing their voice to make it sound more sexy, men found it harder.

To sound more attractive, both sexes also speak slower, the authors write:

“…both sexes in our sample slowed their speech in comparison to their normal speech when trying to sound attractive/sexy…

Perhaps the slowing of one’s voice in a mating scenario is an attempt to convey approachability, as decreased speaking rate was found to increase the benevolence ratings of a speaker.”

Women, though, when they listened to men trying to sound attractive, were not convinced.

When women tried to sound sexier, it was more convincing.

Dr Susan Hughes, the study’s first author, said:

“This ability may be due to culture and cuts across cultures and time.

There is a stereotype of what is a sexual voice in our culture — a low, breathy voice.”

The study had people trying to intentionally change their voices to embody different traits.

They tried to sound more sexy, confident, intelligent and dominant.

Dr Hughes said men found it difficult to sound sexy:

“In fact, although not significantly, it got a bit worse when men tried to sound sexy.”

Both sexes, though, had no problem sounding more intelligent and more dominant.

The researchers explained the changes people made:

“…both sexes slowed their speech and women lowered their pitch and had greater vocal hoarseness.

Both sexes raised their pitch and spoke louder to sound dominant and women had less vocal hoarseness.”

Women, though, found it hard to sound more confident.

The reason for the differences could be down to practice, the researchers think.

Men do not really focus on making their voice sound sexier, but women do.

The study was published in Journal of Nonverbal Behavior (Hughes et al., 2014).

People were shown a random sample of black, white and mixed-race faces.

Mixed-race faces are consistently seen as the most attractive when compared with black and white faces, research finds.

The finding is dramatic among the most attractive people, writes Dr Michael Lewis, the study’s author:

“…40% of the faces in the experiment were mixed race but among the top 10% most attractive faces this proportion increased to 65%.

Of the top 5% most attractive faces, 74% were mixed race.”

Dr Michael Lewis explained the motivation for the study:

“Previous, small scale, studies have suggested that people of mixed race are perceived as being more attractive than non-mixed-race people.

This study was an attempt to put this to the wider test.

A random sample of black, white, and mixed-race faces was collected and rated for their perceived attractiveness.

There was a small but highly significant effect, with mixed-race faces, on average, being perceived as more attractive.”

There is an evolutionary theory for why mixed race faces are seen as more attractive.

Charles Darwin came up with the idea that hybrids are more vigorous (heterosis).

Cross-breeding in many species leads to offspring or are genetically fitter.

It could be that humans also pick up on this hybrid strength.

Dr Lewis writes:

“The results appear to confirm that people whose genetic backgrounds are more diverse are, on average, perceived as more attractive than those whose backgrounds are less diverse.

This can be taken as evidence for heterosis among human population groups.

There is evidence, albeit anecdotal, that the impact of heterosis goes beyond just attractiveness.

This comes from the observation that, although mixed-race people make up a small proportion of the population, they are over-represented at the top level of a number of meritocratic professions like acting with Halle Berry, Formula 1 racing with Lewis Hamilton; and, of course, politics with Barack Obama.”

Previous research has shown the same effect for mixed Asian and European backgrounds.

Dr Lewis said:

“…people of a mixed Asian and European background were rated as more attractive than Asians, Europeans, or even faces generated as morphs between these two groups.”

The study was published in the journal Perception (Lewis, 2010).