Men can tell if a woman is attractive simply by listening to her voice

Researchers found women judged to have pretty faces also have voices regarded by men as appealing.

‘People can make quite reliable guesses about women’s facial attractiveness on the basis of their voices,’ said study co-author Markus Koppensteiner, an anthropologist from the University of Vienna. He added: ‘Attractive voices may create an idea about what a woman will look like.’

Researchers photographed the faces and recorded the voices of 42 women with an average age of 24.

They then asked a group of men – with an average age of mid 20s – to rate the women’s voices on attractiveness and another group of similar age to judge the attractiveness of their faces.

Those rated highly for looks often scored well for sound too, with the study finding a ‘significant relationship between males’ ratings of female faces and voices. Findings suggest that women with an attractive face also tend to have an attractive voice’.

The scientists also mapped the shape, size and layout of the women’s faces to work out which facial traits were considered to be more attractive both physically and vocally.

They found women deemed the most attractive tended to have ‘lifted jawbones, less robust jaws and fuller lips’.

The research could shed light on the visual and vocal appeal of radio broadcasters such as Fearne Cotton.

Mr Koppensteiner added: ‘It could explain why women who have made it (on radio) also have attractive faces.’

Previous research has indicated women also pay close attention to men’s voices, preferring a deeper pitch because they associate it with a larger body size.

(dailymail.co.uk)