Study finds attraction is multisensory; voice outweighs looks when senses are separated

A multinational team of researchers reporting in the British Journal of Psychology found that human attraction is shaped by multiple senses rather than appearance alone, with voice emerging as a particularly influential cue when sensory signals are evaluated separately.

The study recruited 61 volunteers who contributed photographs, short videos, voice recordings and body-odor samples collected on sweat pads worn during exercise. Investigators presented those materials to raters either in isolation (for example, voice-only or odor-only) or in combined formats (for example, video with synchronized audio) to determine which channels most strongly predicted perceived attractiveness and how cues overlapped.

When single attributes were assessed, the participants’ voices were the best standalone indicator of perceived attractiveness, the researchers reported. Body odor showed the weakest correspondence with facial appearance. Across conditions, raters preferred multisensory presentations—videos with synchronized sound that allowed viewers to evaluate faces, movement and vocal qualities together—over single-modality stimuli.

The study builds on longstanding findings that people tend to favor facial symmetry, average features and other markers linked to health and so-called biological fitness. By separating sensory channels, the authors sought to clarify how nonvisual cues such as gait and vocal characteristics contribute to social judgments that earlier work had largely attributed to appearance.

The research team emphasized that combined sensory information often produced different evaluations than any single cue alone, underscoring the idea that attraction is an integrated perceptual judgment. The investigators write that multisensory testing can reveal trade-offs and complementarities among signals that are invisible in visual-only research designs.

Experts not involved in the study said the findings align with a growing literature that treats social perception as a multimodal process. Voices convey information about age, health and emotional state, while body motion communicates confidence and intent; odor can carry chemical markers related to genetics and immune function. Together, these channels shape rapid assessments that people make in social and mating contexts.

Psychologist Francesca Tighinean, in a widely viewed short video on the social platform TikTok, highlighted behavioral signs she associates with being perceived as attractive. She said people often exhibit an eyebrow flash when they see someone they find interesting, may go out of their way to help them (a halo effect), and sometimes make less frequent compliments because they assume attractiveness is already noticed. Tighinean added that strangers may maintain longer eye contact with those they find appealing and that others are sometimes surprised by the insecurities of people perceived as attractive. Her remarks were offered as practical context rather than as empirical results from the study.

The authors acknowledge limitations, including the study’s modest sample size and the logistical constraints of collecting and presenting multiple sensory modalities. They call for larger, more diverse samples and for studies that examine how cultural, developmental and situational factors affect the relative weight of different cues.

The findings carry implications for research on mating preferences, interpersonal communication and the design of social technologies that rely on single channels of information, such as dating apps and voice-only platforms. The authors suggest that platforms and researchers should consider how voice and motion cues interact with facial appearance when trying to understand or model human attraction.