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Women think men with low voices will cheat, study shows

A recent Canadian study from McMaster University suggests that women prefer men with deep voices despite their belief that those men are more likely to cheat.

Female undergrads from the Ontario university were played various recordings of male voices ranging from high to low tones. The women were asked to choose which voices they thought would be best for a short-term and long-term relationship. While the participants preferred the deeper voices, they admitted that those men would be more likely to cheat, and therefore would be more suitable for a fling rather than a substantial relationship.

"Until now, it's been unclear why women would like the voices of men who might cheat," says lead author Jillian O'Connor, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour. "But we found the more women thought men would cheat, the more they were attracted to them for a brief relationship when they are less worried about fidelity."

O'Connor notes that a man's low-pitched voice is only attractive to a point -- if it's too deep (anything below 90 hertz), it becomes a turn-off. A man's normal pitch is about 120 hertz, while a high pitch registers at 140 hertz. The "sexy" range is around 100 hertz.

As for why women assume lower-pitched men are more likely to be unfaithful, O'Connor suggests it could all be biological.

"Men with lower-pitched voices have higher levels of testosterone and men who have higher levels of testosterone may be more likely to cheat when they're in a relationship. They're generally less committed," she explains.

The study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, surveyed 87 undergraduate women at McMaster University during the last academic year.

O'Connor's explanation involving testosterone is backed up by a study published in 2006 from the American Psychological Association that shows men who cheat show elevated testosterone levels.

Prior research O'Connor conduced in 2011 found similar conclusions to her most recent study, concluding that men deemed women with a high-pitched voice as more likely to be unfaithful.