According to new research, men can't adapt their voices to sound sexy. As part of a study, researchers got 20 men and 20 women to use a sexy voice, with 40 other people listening to work out whether they sounded sexy. The listeners also had an example of the speakers' normal voices so they could tell if there was any sexy improvement or boner-killing decrease of sexiness.
Apparently, women were much better at it than men, as they would make their voices a bit hoarser by lowering them so they sound a bit like Scarlett Johansson's natural speaking voice. Even though men actually prefer a high-pitched Katy Perry speaking voice, the cultural indication of a low, breathy voice on a woman is that she's sexually interested.
Men couldn't sound sexier when they tried, though. Author of the Albright University study Susan Hughes wrote in a statement entitled 'Her Voice Is Hot - His Is Not': 'In fact, although not significantly, it got a bit worse when men tried to sound sexy,'
The results, published in the *Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour *and reported by* Time* are apparently down to mate selection. Apparently, men are the ones doing the choosing of their mates, so women have evolved in such a way as to show themselves off as the most attractive, beating other competition to win a mate.
However, we think it might just be because men are so keen to have deep voices as it is, using their normal voices, there's no possible way they could lower them to sound sexier. When it comes to making voices sound smarter, both genders manage (how a voice sounds smarter is beyond us, though… we sure hope it's not just by making your voice sound posher). But when trying to sound more confident, women couldn't manage it, and men could only succeed when the listeners were female.
Well, with unsexy voices from men and a lack of confidence from women, it's no wonder sexting is the new phone sex!
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.