Bisexual men are perceived as more masculine-sounding than straight men, study finds
The University of Sydney asked 70 participants to rate the masculinity of the voice Bisexual men were perceived to have more ‘dominant’ voices than all other men.
A new study claims that bisexual men are more masculine-sounding than both straight and gay men.
Researchers at the University of Sydney asked 70 Australians to infer the sexuality and determine the ‘femininity’ of 60 men who recited lines from the national anthem.
While participants could distinguish between the voices of gay and straight men with 62 percent accuracy, they often struggled to identify bisexual men.
“Normal listeners could distinguish the voices of gay and straight men at rates above chance, although this was not the case for bisexual men,” the authors wrote.
“With the finding that bisexual men were judged to be the most exclusively attracted to women, they were also judged to be the most masculine.
Bisexual men are more masculine-sounding than both straight and gay men, a new study finds (stock image).
‘These findings provide further support that male vocal masculinity and perceptions of heterosexuality go hand-in-hand, regardless of the speaker’s sexual orientation.’
Differences between the way straight and gay men talk have been identified in previous studies.
In Italy, Germany and the United States, analysis shows that gay men generally speak at a higher pitch and often pronounce words more clearly than straight men.
It was often seen as more ‘feminine’ as it deviated from the strictly enforced ‘masculine’ norm of a deep, low pitched voice.
It’s not clear exactly what causes this, but many suggest that biological processes in the brain and even internal stereotypes may be at play.
In the latest study, experts initially thought that bisexual men would fit somewhere in between these perceptions – being seen as ‘more feminine’ than straight men but ‘less masculine’ than gay men.
Although bisexual men made a ‘unique impression’ in the study, the researchers say it was an impression that the audience did not associate with bisexuality.
Bisexual men were considered to have a more ‘dominant’ voice than gay and straight men
Scientists believe this phenomenon may actually misidentify bisexual men as straight more commonly, contributing to ‘gender erasure’.
First coined in 2000, it refers to the lack of recognition that bisexuality exists despite clear scientific evidence.
Many believe this comes from a widespread tendency to view sexual orientation on a very black and white basis where people can be either gay or straight.
This ideology presents any other sexuality, including bisexuality and pansexuality, as a phase or illegitimate feeling.
The researchers said, ‘The erasure represents a pressing daily dilemma for bisexuals, with bisexuals reporting fewer connections with other sexual minority people than their gay and lesbian peers and concealing their sexual identity.’
‘Future research should seek to understand the complex relationship between gender identity and speech patterns.’
Also read: Scientists find that homosexuality is likely caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors
Preferences for same-sex relationships are determined by both environmental and various genetic factors, a large-scale study has confirmed.
This means that there is no such thing as a single ‘gay gene’ that determines your sexual preferences — just like many other human characteristics.
Instead, thousands of genetic regions are involved, together accounting for about 8-25 percent of differences in sexual preference among humans.
The researchers confirmed this after studying genetic and survey data from more than 470,000 volunteers taken from the UK Biobank and 23andMe.com.
Preference for same-sex relationships is determined by both environmental and various genetic factors, a large-scale study has confirmed (stock image).