A University of California study has found that women consider men who mumble to be rather dishy. The study took recordings of 42 men and women speaking and played them to 124 others who judged how attractive the voices sounded. There was a significant gender disparity in how voices were rated. Women who spoke with more clarity ranked highly, while men who were harder to understand were considered more attractive. Researchers say the difference in speech patterns appears to be what’s called a ‘sexual dimorphism’ – we like a feature in the opposite sex that’s not considered appealing in our own. “From a sexual selection standpoint, males with traits that are slightly more masculine than average are typically preferred, which in this context would make males with less clear speech more attractive,” said the study’s lead researcher Dr Daniel Stehr.

Image source: Getty