The lowest and average speaking fundamental frequency tend to be reliable indicators of how testosterone alters the size and thickness of vocal-folds, suggesting that voice pitch may signal important aspects of mate quality (e.g., fertility). Indeed, both studies using computer manipulations of voice pitch and those that have measured pitch from unmanipulated voices have demonstrated that, in general, women prefer lowered pitch in male voices and that men prefer raised pitch in female voices. Humans can also consciously raise or lower their voice pitch, however, raising the question of how deliberately faked voice pitch might affect perceptions of attractiveness. To investigate this issue, we recorded participants speaking in their natural voice, speaking with raised voice pitch, and speaking with lowered voice pitch. These recordings were assessed by same and opposite-sex raters for attractiveness using a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm. We found that men preferred natural voice pitch to raised or lowered voice pitch when judging women’s attractiveness. Women preferred natural voice pitch to raised voice pitch when judging men’s attractiveness, but did not prefer natural pitch to lowered pitch. These results suggest that deliberately (i.e. artificially) modifying one’s voice pitch does not always lead to increased attractiveness and can often make one sound less attractive. The implications of these findings for the evolution of signals of mate quality will be discussed.
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