Unique study reveals why men and women make different noises during sex
From euphoria to boredom, making sounds in bed is a standard communication tool between sexual partners.
Some use the characteristic noises to demonstrate they're enjoying themselves, while others use it as a gentle nudge to try a different approach.
Few studies have investigated sex sounds and why people make them, mainly focusing on animals like apes.
But a recent study used vocal recordings of real people engaged in sexual activity to explore the different types of sexual noises between men and women.
Their findings indicated that women were louder than men, particularly during the moment of orgasm. Men, meanwhile, were more likely to make non-vocal sounds such as heavy breathing.
As to the reasons behind the differences, scientists believe women may feel pressure to vocalize more to build up their partner and want to guide their partner's actions. Men, meanwhile, make noises, often at peak orgasm, to express pleasure, power, and the toll of physical exertion.
Dr Jess O’Reilly, an expert in human sexuality and relationship coach, told Bustle: ‘Women make noises to stroke their partners' egos, heighten their partners' pleasure, and for expediency (i.e. to get it over with).’
Using a voluntary database where people could upload their noises, Dr Andrey Anikin, who specializes in human nonverbal communication at Lund University Cognitive Science in Sweden, sought to understand why men and women make certain noises in the bedroom.
His research findings appear in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
Dr Anikin recruited over 100 people to analyze sex sounds downloaded from an online database, and judge how authentic they sounded and whether the noise was coming from a man or a woman.
Of the 109 listeners, 43 were women and 65 were men. They listened to some of the 200 recordings of sex sounds, each lasting between 30 and 90 seconds.
The listeners were asked, ‘how aroused does this person sound?’ and used a sliding tool on a computer program that ranged from ‘relaxed’ to ‘orgasm.’
They moved the slider in real-time based on what they heard, and the slider's position was logged continuously throughout the recording.
After each trial, the listeners were asked whether the person making the sound was a man or a woman and whether they thought the pleasure was authentic.
Dr Anikin said: ‘Putting all these observations together, what emerges is a picture of two distinct vocal behaviors: effortful grunts or strategically deployed controlled moans at low arousal...and spontaneous vocal bursts once arousal exceeds a certain threshold.
‘Men mostly sigh and grunt until the arousal level becomes very high; women either have a lower threshold for vocalizing (producing moans) or perhaps are used to exaggerating their expressive behaviors.’
The sounds and participants' responses to them were analyzed, and showed that pitch, syllable duration, and rate all peaked simultaneously.
On average, women's voices were higher in pitch than men's by about 6.6 semitones, or pitch difference between two adjacent keys on a piano. This difference grew to about 9.9 semitones at orgasm.
Women also had more harmonic voices, meaning their sounds were more musical. Men had a more sharply dropping pitch.
While both men and women had a similar overall proportion of sounds and vocalizations, men tended to make the most noise right before and during an orgasm, whereas women consistently made sounds throughout.
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Dr Anikin said: ‘Sexual vocalizations may be produced intentionally to please, vocally guide, or speed up the partner.’
But making noise during sex is also known to enhance some womens' pleasure.
Sexual health researcher and educator Patty Brisben said: ‘I think there are many women who need to be vocal to help themselves achieve orgasm. It helps move them and their orgasm along.
‘There are certainly phases. As a woman gets into it, she may become extremely vocal and then move into a period of quiet as she is on the verge.’
While making noises during sex, whether that means speaking words or letting out a low moan, are strong tools of conveying information between partners, sex experts say conveying accurate information is crucial for mutual enjoyment.
In one survey of more than a thousand American women, researchers found that over 58 percent of women faked orgasms for various reasons, including wanting their partner ‘to feel successful, [wanting] sex to end because they were tired, and [because] they liked the person and didn’t want them to feel bad.’
Ms Brisben, who was not involved in the study, said: ‘If you’re faking an orgasm, you are signaling to your partner that he is doing everything right, when in fact he isn’t
‘Use moaning as a way of signaling that you are excited and things really are feeling good, not as a way to hide that they aren’t.’
