Obama, Butler and Momoa Hit the “Sweet Spot”: Scientists Reveal the Most Attractive Male Voice

Men dreaming of sounding sexier may want to give up trying to make their voices as deep as possible. A new study has found that women do not necessarily prefer the deepest bass, but rather a specific “sweet spot” somewhere in the middle.

Scientists discovered that the most attractive male voice has a frequency of around 95 Hz. That is roughly the range of voices belonging to Barack Obama, Gerard Butler and Jason Momoa.

“Male voices have a major influence on how their owners are perceived,” researchers from Durham University noted.

For the experiment, scientists recruited 1,466 people in the United States and asked them to evaluate recordings of 17 men. The participants’ voices were digitally altered, with their frequencies raised or lowered, and volunteers then rated how the voices sounded across several parameters, including attractiveness and dominance.

The lowest version had a frequency of 75 Hz — roughly the range reached by Vin Diesel’s voice, according to the researchers. At the other end of the scale were voices at 115 and 135 Hz, comparable to the higher-pitched voice of comedian Kevin Hart.

Yet neither the extremely deep nor the higher voices emerged as the favorite.

Participants rated 95 Hz most highly. According to the scientists, this frequency appears to preserve a sense of masculinity without turning the voice into an excessively deep bass.

Particularly telling was the fact that women preferred the 95 Hz version over all the others. At the same time, researchers found no convincing evidence that women are attracted to the deepest possible male voices. On the contrary, attractiveness began to decline when the frequency dropped below the optimal level.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s voice also falls at around 100 Hz. The researchers cite him as another example of a famous man with a low, but not excessively deep, voice.

The findings suggest that the popular theory of “the lower the voice, the better” is overly simplistic. A deep voice is indeed associated with strength, masculinity and authority, but the experiment suggests that women prefer a sound that comes across as masculine without turning into an ultra-low rumble.

Scientists suggest that higher-pitched voices may be perceived as less attractive and less dominant because they are considered less masculine. Participants consistently associated lower-pitched voices with physical strength, fighting ability and influence.

However, the researchers emphasize an important nuance: the preference for a more masculine-sounding voice may be driven primarily by an aversion to the most “feminine” options rather than by a strong attraction to extremely deep voices.

The findings were published in the scientific journal Royal Society Open Science.

The results are particularly relevant amid the growing trend known as “voicemaxxing” — attempts to artificially lower the pitch of one’s voice. Last month, scientists had already warned men about the potential dangers of such experiments.

Social media is filled with advice ranging from breathing and vocal exercises to so-called “neck twists,” which are supposedly designed to make the voice deeper. Some influencers openly claim that a low voice automatically makes a man more attractive.

However, specialists warn that constantly speaking at an artificially lowered pitch can lead to muscle tension dysphonia — excessive tension in the muscles around the larynx. As a result, the voice can become hoarse, strained or “breathy,” and in some cases may even suddenly disappear while speaking.

So men dreaming of sounding like Vin Diesel may want to rethink their plans. According to the new study, the secret to an attractive male voice is not maximum depth at all, but finding the right balance.