Multisensory perception is important for interpersonal attraction and love. And women and men who are physically attractive may appear differently in different cultures.

Men and women not only look at their partners with admiration but also come closer, speak, sing, dance, touch each other, smile, hug, cuddle, kiss, and so on. Interpersonal perception involves multisensory processing. Visual, auditory, tactile-kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory perceptions are used to admire a loved one’s physical qualities.

The Importance of a Sexy Voice for Interpersonal Attraction

Attractive, sexy voices and other sounds of a partner’s vocal appearance and behavior, as well as the sounds of nature and music around them, have a big impact on how attractive and sexually appealing a person is.

Vocal characteristics of the voice, as well as listening to romantic music, can enhance the attractiveness of a potential partner in a relationship (Guéguen, Jacob, & Lamy, 2010).

Voice has mating value and can influence romantic attraction. Attractive male and female voices are associated with several attractive features of men’s and women’s bodies, mating success, and sexual behavior (see for review, Karandashev et al., 2016, 2020).

Those individuals with attractive voices easily initiate relationships, have their first sexual intercourse earlier, and have a greater number of affairs, sexual partners, and encounters (e.g., Apicella, Feinberg, & Marlowe, 2007; Hughes et al., 2004).

Auditory stimuli are essential for sexual attraction in both women and men, but in different contexts. Researchers demonstrated how various effects of voice determine the attraction and mating value of a partner. For example, those with attractive voices have their first sexual intercourse earlier than their peers, and they usually have more affairs and sexual partners (Herz & Cahill, 1997; Hughes et al., 2004).

What Sexy Voice Is Attractive in a Relationship?

Sexual dimorphism plays an important role in this regard, since men’s voices are different from women’s in several characteristics. For example, men’s voices have:

• a lower pitch, due to the fundamental frequency and
• lower formant dispersion, due to a lower averaged difference between successive formant frequencies (Fitch, 1997; Titze, 1994).

According to some studies, both males and females consider low voices to be sexy and use a lower pitched voice when speaking to the more attractive opposite-sex person (Hughes, Farley, & Rhodes, 2010; Tuomi and Fischer, 1979).

Both men and women tend to lower their pitch of voice when they are speaking to an attractive person of the opposite sex. The voices directed toward an attractive person (versus an unattractive one) have a noticeably different pitch and sound more pleasant. The low voices also sound sexy (Hughes, Farley, & Rhodes, 2010; Tuomi & Fischer, 1979).

The Man’s Sexy Voice Is Attractive to Women

Many studies have shown that attractive men’s voices are medium or lower in average fundamental frequency, medium to higher in variance of the fundamental frequency, less monotonous, with high or medium pitch variation, which sounds masculine and mature (Riding, Lonsdale, & Brown, 2006; Zuckerman & Miyake, 1993; Zuckerman, Miyake, & Elkin, 1995, see for detailed review Karandashev et al., 2016, 2020).

Men’s voices with a medium or lower pitch, due to the fundamental frequency of speech tone, are more attractive to women (Collins, 2000; Hodges-Simeon, Gaulin, & Puts, 2010; Riding, Lonsdale, & Brown, 2006; Zuckerman & Miyake, 1993).

Women prefer low-pitched male voices in general, but especially when women are ovulating (Feinberg et al., 2006; Puts, 2005).

Sexy Voice and Body Morphology

Biologically, voice parameters correlate with sex-specific body morphology. It was found that men and women with attractive voices usually have better bilateral body symmetry (Hughes, Harrison, & Gallup, 2002; Hughes, Pastizzo, & Gallup, 2008; Pisanski et al., 2016).

Women with attractive voices have a lower waist-to-hip ratio, while men with attractive voices have broader shoulders relative to their hips. These body characteristics indicate reproductive maturity and genetic quality (Hughes et al., 2004).

Men’s Sexy Voice and Masculinity

Data has shown that men with low voice pitches have higher testosterone levels (Cartei, Bond, & Reby, 2014; Dabbs & Mallinger, 1999).

They are perceived to be taller, heavier, and older (Cartei, Bond, & Reby, 2014).

Psychologically, low voice pitch is associated with judgments of greater male dominance (Collins, 2000; Hodges-Simeon, Gaulin, & Puts, 2010).

It is evident that men’s voices that are masculine and sound mature are more attractive to women (Feinberg et al., 2006; Zuckerman, Miyake, & Elkin, 1995).

All these findings support the evolutionary standpoint that women are attracted to men with low voice pitches because they are perceived as strong, masculine, and dominant, and thus capable of enhancing their genetic survival (Barber, 1995; Buss, 1989).

Both the evolutionary theory and the theory of traditional gender-role stereotypes explain why women are attracted to strong and dominant men, which can provide a better opportunity for their survival and wealth. And greater men’s dominance is associated with a voice with a lower average fundamental frequency (Apicella, Feinberg, & Marlowe, 2007; Collins, 2000; Dabbs & Mallinger, 1999).

For example, among Hadza hunter-gatherers, a low voice pitch is associated with higher numbers of offspring (Apicella et al., 2007).

The expressive, sexy voice is attractive in a relationship

Expressive voices are romantically attractive. It is important not only what men and women say to each other, but also how they say them. Men’s voices that are less monotonous, with medium or high variance in fundamental frequency and high or medium pitch variation, for example, are perceived as more attractive. (Ray, Ray, & Zahn, 1991; Zuckerman & Miyake, 1993). These qualities of voice give the impression that males are dynamic, feminine, and aesthetically inclined (Addington, 1968).

However, other variables can mediate these characteristics, producing multifaceted effects. For example, Brown, Strong, and Rencher (1973, 1974) found that medium variance of the fundamental frequency, rather than increased variance of the fundamental frequency, was rated as more attractive. Recently, however, it was found that men with monotone voices have greater numbers of heterosexual sex partners (Hodges-Simeon et al., 2011).