Researchers, led by Southwest University in Chongqing, China, measured the pitch of the voices of 116 men and 145 women.
Participants, with a mean age of around 20, were then asked about their attitudes to fidelity and commitment.
“Our findings demonstrated that masculine men are more likely to engage in infidelity and commit less to their romantic relationships compared with feminine men,” the researchers said.
Testosterone and the characteristics dependent on testosterone can be reliable indicators of quality-dependent conditions or behaviours; therefore, men with higher testosterone levels, and hence lower voices, may have more infidelity behaviours or less commitment to their romantic relationship
But the results, published in the Personality and Individual Differences journal, found no link between the pitch of women’s voices and infidelity.
The researchers suggested testosterone could be a key factor, with deep-voiced men more attractive to women.
They wrote: “Testosterone and the characteristics dependent on testosterone can be reliable indicators of quality-dependent conditions or behaviours; therefore, men with higher testosterone levels, and hence lower voices, may have more infidelity behaviours or less commitment to their romantic relationship.
“Furthermore, from the point of view of evolutionary psychology, men with masculine voices may enhance their status among other men or their attractiveness to women, thereby increasing their chances of obtaining more or higher-quality partners.”
