Correlated male preferences for femininity in female faces and voices

Sexually dimorphic traits are important for mate choice and mate preference in many species, including humans. Several previous studies have observed that women's preferences for cue of male masculinity in different domains (e.g., visual and vocal) are correlated. This demonstrates systematic, rather than arbitrary, variation in women's preferences for masculine men and suggests that sexually dimorphic cues in different domains reflect a common underlying aspect of male quality. Here we present evidence for a similar correlation between men's preferences for different cues of femininity in women; although men generally preferred feminized to masculinized versions of both women's faces and vocies, the strength of men's preferences for feminized versions of female faces were positively and significantly correlated with the strength of their preferences for feminized versions of women's voices. Collectively, these findings (1) present novel evidence for systematic variation in men's preferences for feminine women, (2) present converging evidence for concordant preferences for sexually dimorphic traits in different domains, and (3) complement findings of correlations betwen women's facial and vocal femininity, suggesting that women's faces and voices may signal a common underlying quality.