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'Sexy' voice gives fertile women away

  • 01 May 2008
  • From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
  • Colin Barras


A woman's voice becomes more attractive when she is most fertile. That's according to Nathan Pipitone and Gordon Gallup of the State University of New York at Albany.


The pair recorded women counting from 1 to 10 at four occasions during their menstrual cycle. They then replayed the recordings at random to male and female students and asked them to rate the attractiveness of the voices. Both males and females judged the women's voices to be most attractive if they were recorded during the peak fertility period of the menstrual cycle, and less attractive if they were recorded during non-fertile periods (Evolution and Human Behavior, DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.02.001).


Geoffrey Miller at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, showed last year that women lap dancers earn more tips during their fertile days.