> "In voice pitch, we are looking at more like 60 percent [difference between men and women]."<p>Is this speaking in raw frequency? If so, I think it is overstated. A 50% reduction in frequency is only one octave, which is 10% of the range of the human ear. And a 50% increase in pitch (from men to women, which is what I think they are saying based on other sources on human voice pitch) is only a 5th, the interval in the Star Wars theme, or 'God Rest, ye merry gentlemen,' which really isn't that much.<p>> According to Puts, this fits with the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis, which states that since testosterone takes away energy from the immune system, only men in the best of health—whose immune systems are not suffering due to physiological stress—can afford to develop testosterone-dependent traits.<p>Well I guess my autoimmune disorders explain why I'm a tenor. Oh well, that means I get the best arias.<p>For most people, I've found that what they call a 'deeper' voice is simply a more resonant voice. There's a video where Tom Scott is trying to sing. He sings a note more resonantly, and he thinks he dropped down the octave. But he actually stayed at the same pitch.[0] So I wonder if that is why 'deeper' voices are perceived as more confident, simply because the people are speaking at roughly the same pitch but are speaking more loudly and more resonantly.<p>I also question a bit whether deep voices really are more appealing on a society-wide basis, maybe for sexual attraction purposes, though I have some thoughts on that too.[1] But, most male singers that have been prized as stars sing higher. It's a meme now that all male pop singers sing way up in the stratosphere, but it's been true historically too--the tenors got the best arias most of the time. There are certainly lower-voiced outliers (Bing Crosby comes to mind), but the 'stars' so to speak have often been higher-voiced.<p>[0]: <a href="https://youtu.be/2QKPQ6JYVhU?t=439" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/2QKPQ6JYVhU?t=439</a><p>[1]: I remember being inexplicably taken when I watched <i>Mindhunter</i> by the male lead. I took a straw poll of several gay men I knew, and they all said that Jonathan Groff was sexy specifically for his voice, which is indeed quite high, noticeably so even just casually viewing his movies. Obviously, this anecdata doesn't undo the actual research in the article, but I do think it is a bit more complicated than presented here.