Washington: A new study has claimed that a woman’s voice does not give any reliable information about the timing of ovulation, as contrasted to the earlier view that a woman’s voice can broadcast reproductive information about them.
Previous studies in this area have typically relied on the comparison of voices recorded in just two phases in the cycle: high conception risk vs. low conception risk, claiming a woman’s voice might also contain cues that men can read about how close they are to ovulation.
The new work challenging the old belief looked at the variation in the voice throughout the entire menstrual cycle, which was a crucial step to evaluate the potential information contained in any observed voice changes.
The researchers found that the women who were studied for the work spoke with the highest tone just prior to ovulation, whereas the tone rose again to indistinguishable levels from pre-ovulation shortly after ovulation, making it a very poor mating clue.
The authors concluded that women’s voices do not provide any reliable information about the timing of ovulation and that men show only a very slight preference for pre-ovulation voices relative to voices recorded during ovulation.
The study had been published in the journal PLoS ONE.
ANI
