A study of women of reproductive age in China found that women perceived feminine voices (of other women) as more jealousy-inducing. Interestingly, this effect depended on the body size of the women experiencing jealousy. Tall, slim women are more likely than shorter, heavier women to feel jealous when other women’s voices sound more feminine. The paper was published in. psycho journal.
Jealousy is an emotional response to a perceived threat to an important relationship or cherished bond. It occurs when a person fears losing attention, affection, devotion, or status to another person. Jealousy can include feelings of insecurity, insecurity, sadness, anger, and resentment.
In romantic relationships, jealousy typically occurs when individuals perceive that their relationship may be threatened by a rival who exhibits characteristics (such as high physical attractiveness) that are indicative of a high quality spouse. These perceived threats trigger a jealous response aimed at protecting the relationship from potential rivals.
Scientific findings show that the strength of the jealous response depends on the perceived mate quality of the potential rival. This is called the spousal nature and jealousy hypothesis. Traits that indicate mate quality tend to be traits that differ between the sexes (sexually dimorphic traits). According to this hypothesis, women will feel more jealous of other women who have more pronounced feminine characteristics, such as a more feminine voice.
Study author Cairang Guanque and colleagues hypothesized that women might feel more jealous in situations where another woman they perceive as a rival has a more feminine voice. They also hypothesized that the strength of this response would depend on the woman’s own body size.
Specifically, the relationship between the femininity of a rival’s voice and jealousy appeared to be stronger for women who were taller or had lower weight or body mass index (BMI) values. The researchers theorized that tall, slim women, who have characteristics culturally associated with high mate value, may have evolved as sensitive “threat detectors” because they have more to lose if a high-value partner is poached.
Study participants were 134 heterosexual women between the ages of 18 and 40 recruited from university campuses in China. Their average age was 19.3 years.
Within the study, participants listened to recordings of 131 women saying “hello” to each other. The study authors analyzed the recordings to precisely measure acoustic pitch and formant frequencies (which determine the resonance of the voice) to determine the level of femininity. They gave participants the following instructions: “You hear a woman’s voice. Please rate how jealous you would be if she were flirting with your romantic partner (from 1 = low to 7 = high). If you are not currently in a romantic relationship, imagine that you were.” After this vocal judgment task, the study authors measured the participants’ height and weight.
The results showed that, as expected, female participants perceived more feminine voices to be more jealousy-inducing. However, this effect depends on body size. Tall women were more sensitive to vocal changes in both pitch and formants, while slimmer women and women with lower BMI showed greater sensitivity, especially to changes in pitch. In other words, taller, slimmer women are more likely to feel jealous than shorter or heavier women if their female rival’s voice sounds more feminine.
“These findings indicate that body size significantly influences individual differences in jealousy susceptibility in intrasexual competition. Our study supports the mate quality-jealousy hypothesis and highlights how traits perceived as indicators of higher mate quality amplify jealous responses,” the study authors concluded.
This study contributes to the scientific understanding of jealousy. However, it should be noted that most of the participants in this study were 19- and 20-year-old students from a single university in China. Results may vary in other cultures or in other age or demographic groups. Additionally, while this study only tested auditory cues in isolation, real-world jealousy typically also includes visual cues, such as facial attractiveness and body language.
The paper, “From physique to emotion: Decoding the relationship between body and jealousy in women’s responses to female vocal cues,” was authored by Cairang Guanque, Chenle Xu, Chuhan Ji, Xingbang Ren, Xue Lei, and Chengyang Han.
