Does the menstrual cycle modulate how trustworthy a woman sounds?

Objective: Accumulating evidence suggests that the attractiveness of women's voices is affected by menstrual cycle. In the present study we aimed at investigating whether the menstrual cycle also affects the perceived trustworthiness of a speaker, and whether sentence content has an influence on the speakers and/or on the perceivers. Methods: The voice of female speakers was recorded once around ovulation and once in the luteal phase. We recorded neutral sentences and sentences that suggested a context in which you want to get to know someone. For each speaker, recordings from both cycle phases were paired. An independent sample of 60 participants were asked for each pair to choose the voice sample that sounded more trustworthy. Stimuli were also rated for attractiveness. Another independent 60 participants were given the same task but with low-pass filtered recordings (content incomprehensible). Results: Women’s voices were perceived as being more trustworthy around ovulation irrespective of sentence content, but only when speech was comprehensible. In the attractiveness rating, voices in the luteal phase were preferred both when speech was comprehensible and incomprehensible. This was only true for sentences with get-to-know context, not for neutral sentences. Conclusions: Speakers and perceivers seem to be affected by speech content. Voices that sound more attractive do not sound more trustworthy. Our findings conflict with earlier studies suggesting that ovulatory voices are perceived as more attractive