Want to know if someone fancies you? LISTEN to them: Women's voices become huskier and men's higher pitched when speaking to someone they find attractive.

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Plenty of people have noticed how their friends change their voices when they are talking to a partner and now scientists have demonstrated men and women really do alter the pitch of their voice when talking to a person they are romantically interested in.

U.S. researchers found the change in tonality was particularly apparent on the phone and that both men and women tried to match or mimic their partner or love interest's voice.

According to the study, women will use a lower pitch, while men will employ a higher one when speaking to their romantic partner.
The psychologist who led the study believes the change in people's voice variations when they are talking to friends versus lovers, could be used to detect infidelity too.
The study, published in the Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour, looked at how individuals alter their voices, or engage in voice modulation, when speaking to romantic partners versus same-sex friends during brief telephone conversations.
Researchers from Albright College, Pennsylvania, studied the voices of 24 callers who were newly in love and enjoying the 'honeymoon period'.
Callers were asked to phone their romantic partners, as well as a close same-sex friend and in both cases start a conversation that specifically asked 'how are you?' and 'what are you doing?'

Researchers from Albright College, Pennsylvania, studied the voices of 24 callers who were newly in love and enjoying the 'honeymoon period'. Callers were asked to phone their romantic partners, as well as a close same-sex friend and in both cases ask 'how are you?' and 'what are you doing?'

Researchers then played the recordings to 80 independent raters who judged the samples for sexiness, pleasantness and degree of romantic interest.
Raters were exposed to only one end of the conversation and in some cases, for only 2 seconds.
They were able to correctly identify whether the caller was speaking to a friend or lover, leading researchers to believe that people alter their voice to communicate their relationship status.

 

'Vocal samples directed toward romantic partners were rated as sounding more pleasant, sexier and reflecting greater romantic interest than those directed toward same-sex friends,' study leader Professor Susan Hughes said.
The researchers also performed a spectrogram analysis on the samples to examine pitch and found  both men and women mimic or match the pitch of their romantic partners.

David Beckham has a relatively high-pitched voice - perhaps helping him appeal to women. Researchers found both men and women mimic or match the pitch of their romantic partners. The study said this effect 'represents desire for affiliation and intimacy' and is a 'way to communicate affection

Women will use a lower pitch, while men will employ a higher one when speaking to their romantic partner.
The study said this effect 'represents desire for affiliation and intimacy' and is a 'way to communicate affection and relational connection - "I am one with you."'
Interestingly, the scientists also found that when the samples were strippedof their language content while keeping inflection and intonation, raters could sense stress and nervousness in the voices of the study participants who were speaking to their lovers.
Professor Hughes said: 'There was vulnerability associated with the voices of those newly in love. Perhaps people don’t want to be rejected.

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