Masculine voices signal men's threat potential in forager and industrial societies

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volumn 279, Issue 1728, 2012, Pages 601-609

  Puts, David A ^a   Apicella, Coren L ^b   Cárdenas, Rodrigo A ^a  

^a PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Formant frequency; Fundamental frequency; Sexual selection

Indexed keywords

AGGRESSION; ANATOMY; BIOACOUSTICS; BODY SIZE; FORAGING BEHAVIOR; INDUSTRIAL LOCATION; PERCEPTION; SEXUAL DIMORPHISM; SEXUAL SELECTION; SIGNAL; SPERM COMPETITION; TESTOSTERONE; VOCALIZATION;

TANZANIA; UNITED STATES;

EID: 84055218138     PISSN: 09628452     EISSN: 14712970     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2011.0829     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Green, S. M. 1981 Sex differences and age gradations in vocalizations of Japanese and lion-tailed monkey. Am. Zool. 21, 165-184.
2. Rendall, D., Kollias, S., Ney, C. & Lloyd, P. 2005 Pitch (F0) and formant profiles of human vowels and vowellike baboon grunts: the role of vocalizer body size and voice-acoustic allometry. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 117, 944-955.(doi:10.1121/1.1848011)
3. Mitani, J. C. & Gros-Louis, J. 1995 Species and sex differences in the screams of chimpanzees and bonobos. Int. J. Primatol. 16, 393-411.(doi:10.1007/BF02735794)
4. Childers, D. G. & Wu, K. 1991 Gender recognition from speech. II. fine analysis. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 90, 1841-1856.(doi:10.1121/1.401664)
5. Daly, N. & Warren, P. 2001 Pitching it differently in New Zealand English: speaker sex and intonation patterns. J. Sociolinguist. 5, 85-96.(doi:10.1111/1467-9481.00139)
6. Tossi, O., Postan, D. & Bianculli, C. 1976 Longitudinal study of children's voice at puberty. XVIth Int. Cong. Logop. Phoniatr. 1976, 486-490.
7. Newman, S. R., Butler, J., Hammond, E. H. & Gray, S. D. 2000 Preliminary report on hormone receptors in the human vocal fold. J. Voice. 14, 72-81.(doi:10.1016/S0892-1997(00)80096-X)
8. Harries, M., Hawkins, S., Hacking, J. & Hughes, I. 1998 Changes in the male voice at puberty: vocal fold length and its relationship to the fundamental frequency of the voice. J. Laryngol. Otol. 112, 451-454.(doi:10.1017/S0022215100140757)
9. Fitch, W. T. & Giedd, J. 1999 Morphology and development of the human vocal tract: a study using magnetic resonance imaging. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 106, 1511-1522.(doi:10.1121/1.427148)
10. Fant, G. 1960 Acoustic theory of speech production. The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton.
11. Puts, D. A., Gaulin, S. J. C. & Verdolini, K. 2006 Dominance and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in human voice pitch. Evol. Hum. Behav. 27, 283-296.(doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.11.003)
12. Delgado, R. A. 2006 Sexual selection in the loud calls of male primates: signal content and function. Int. J. Primatol. 27, 5-25.(doi:10.1007/s10764-005-9001-4)
13. Andersson, M. 1994 Sexual selection. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
14. Feinberg, D. R., DeBruine, L. M., Jones, B. C. & Perrett, D. I. 2008 The role of femininity and averageness of voice pitch in aesthetic judgments of women's voices. Perception 37, 615-623.(doi:10.1068/p5514)
15. Puts, D. A., Barndt, J.L., Welling, L. L. M., Dawood, K. & Burriss, R. P. 2011 Intrasexual competition among women: vocal femininity affects perceptions of attractiveness and flirtatiousness. Pers. Indiv. Differ. 50, 111-115.(doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.09.011)
16. Apicella, C. L. & Feinberg, D. R. 2009 Voice pitch alters mate-choice-relevant perception in hunter-gatherers. Proc. R. Soc. B 276, 1077-1082.(doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1542)
17. Trivers, R. L. 1972 Parental investment and sexual selection. In Sexual selection and the descent of man, 1871-1971 (ed. B. Cambell), pp. 136-179. London, UK: Heinemann.
18. Puts, D. A. 2005 Mating context and menstrual phase affect women's preferences for male voice pitch. Evol. Hum. Behav. 26, 388-397.(doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.03.001)
19. Hodges-Simeon, C. R., Gaulin, S. J. & Puts, D. A. 2011 Voice correlates of mating success in men: examining 'contests' versus 'mate choice' modes of sexual selection. Arch. Sex Behav. 40, 551-557.(doi:10.1007/S10508-010-9625-0)
20. Apicella, C. L., Feinberg, D. R. & Marlowe, F. W. 2007 Voice pitch predicts reproductive success in male hunter- gatherers. Biol. Lett. 3, 682-684.(doi:10.1098/rsbl.2007.0410)
21. Feinberg, D. R., Jones, B. C., Little, A. C., Burt, D. M. & Perrett, D. I. 2005 Manipulations of fundamental and formant frequencies affect the attractiveness of human male voices. Anim. Behav. 69, 561-568.(doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.06.012)
22. Collins, S. A. 2000 Men's voices and women's choices. Anim. Behav. 60, 773-780.(doi:10.1006/anbe.2000.1523)
23. Hodges-Simeon, C. R., Gaulin, S. J. & Puts, D. A. 2010 Different vocal parameters predict perceptions of dominance and attractiveness. Hum. Nat. 21, 406-427.(doi:10.1007/s12110-010-9101-5)
24. Puts, D. A. 2010 Beauty and the beast: mechanisms of sexual selection in humans. Evol. Hum. Behav. 31, 157-175.(doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.02.005)
25. Puts, D. A., Hodges, C., Cardenas, R. A. & Gaulin, S. J. C. 2007 Men's voices as dominance signals: vocal fundamental and formant frequencies influence dominance attributions among men. Evol. Hum. Behav. 28, 340-344.(doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.05.002)
26. Jones, B. C., Feinberg, D. R., DeBruine, L. M., Little, A. C. & Vukovic, J. 2010 A domain-specific opposite-sex bias in human preferences for manipulated voice pitch. Anim. Behav. 79, 57-62.(doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.10.003)
27. Wolff, S. E. & Puts, D. A. 2010 Vocal masculinity is a robust dominance signal in men. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 64, 1673-1683.(doi:10.1007/s00265-010-0981-5)
28. Morton, E. S. 1977 On the occurrence and significance of motivation-structural rules in some bird and mammal species. Am. Nat. 111, 855-869.(doi:10.1086/283219)
29. Bruckert, L., Lienard, J. S., Lacroix, A., Kreutzer, M. & Leboucher, G. 2006 Women use voice parameters to assess men's characteristics. Proc. R. Soc. B 273, 83-89.(doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3265)
30. Dabbs, J. M. &Mallinger, A. 1999 High testosterone levels predict low voice pitch among men. Pers. Indiv. Differ. 27, 801-804.(doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(98)00272-4)
31. Evans, S., Neave, N., Wakelin, D. & Hamilton, C. 2008 The relationship between testosterone and vocal frequencies in human males. Physiol. Behav. 93, 783-788.(doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.11.033)
32. Archer, J. 1991 The influence of testosterone on human aggression. Br. J. Psychol. 82, 1-28.(doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1991.tb02379.x)
33. Clark, A. S. & Henderson, L. P. 2003 Behavioral and physiological responses to anabolic-androgenic steroids. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 27, 413-436.(doi:10.1016/S0149-7634(03)00064-2)
34. Archer, J. 2006 Testosterone and human aggression: an evaluation of the challenge hypothesis. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 30, 319-345.(doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2004.12.007)
35. Sell, A., Bryant, G. A., Cosmides, L., Tooby, J., Sznycer, D., von Rueden, C., Krauss, A. & Gurven, M. 2010 Adaptations in humans for assessing physical strength from the voice. Proc. R. Soc. B 277, 3509-3518.(doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.0769)
36. Graddol, D. & Swann, J. 1983 Speaking fundamentalfrequency: some physical and social correlates. Lang. Speech 26, 351-366.
37. Evans, S., Neave, N. & Wakelin, D. 2006 Relationships between vocal characteristics and body size and shape in human males: an evolutionary explanation for a deep male voice. Biol. Psychol. 72, 160-163.(doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2005.09.003)
38. Kunzel, H. J. 1989 How well does average fundamental frequency correlate with speaker height and weight? Phonetica 46, 117-125.(doi:10.1159/000261832)
39. Lass, N. J. & Brown, W. S. 1978 Correlational study of speakers' heights, weights, body surface areas, and speaking fundamental frequencies. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 63, 1218-1220.(doi:10.1121/1.381808)
40. van Dommelen, W. A. & Moxness, B. H. 1995 Acoustic parameters in speaker height and weight identification: sex-specific behaviour. Lang. Speech 38, 267-287.
41. Greisbach, R. 1999 Estimation of speaker height from formant frequencies. Forensic Linguist. 6, 265-277.(doi:10.1558/sll.1999.6.2.265)
42. Gonzalez, J. 2004 Formant frequencies and body size of speaker: a weak relationship in adult humans. J. Voice 32, 277-287.
43. Rendall, D., Vokey, J. R. & Nemeth, C. 2007 Lifting the curtain on theWizard of Oz: biased voice-based impressions of speaker size. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 33, 1208-1219.(doi:10.1037/0096-1523.33.5.1208)
44. Fitch, W. T. 1997 Vocal tract length and formant frequency dispersion correlate with body size in rhesus macaques. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 1213-1222.(doi:10.1121/1.421048)
45. Ey, E., Pfefferle, D. & Fischer, J. 2007 Do age- and sexrelated variations reliably reflect body size in non-human primate vocalizations? Rev. Primates 48, 253-267.(doi:10.1007/s10329-006-0033-y)
46. Fairbanks, G. 1960 Voice and articulation drillbook, 2nd edn. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
47. Boersma, P. & Weenik, D. 2009 Praat: doing phonetics by computer, v. 5.1.03 (cited 21 March 2009). See http://www.praat.org/.
48. Baken, R. J. 1987 Clinical measurement of speech and voice. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Co.
49. Cohen, J. 1990 Things I have learned (so far). Am. Psychol. 45, 1304-1312.(doi:10.1037/0003-066X.45.12.1304)
50. Wang, C., Plymate, S., Nieschlag, E. & Paulsen, C. A. 1981 Salivary testosterone in men: further evidence of a direct correlation with free serum testosterone. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 53, 1021-1024.(doi:10.1210/jcem-53-5-1021)
51. Moffat, S. D. & Hampson, E. 1996 Salivary testosterone levels in left- and right-handed adults. Neuropsychologia 34, 225-233.(doi:10.1016/0028-3932(95)00090-9)
52. Buss, A. H. & Perry, M. 1992 The aggression questionnaire. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 63, 452-459.(doi:10.1037/0022-3514.63.3.452)
53. Kutner, M., Nachtsheim, C. & Neter, J. 2004 Applied linear regression models, 4th edn. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
54. Moore, B. C. & Glasberg, B. R. 1983 Suggested formulae for calculating auditory-filter bandwidths and excitation patterns. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 74, 750-753.(doi:10.1121/1.389861)
55. Ellis, L. & Das, S. 2011 Sex differences in smiling and other photographed traits: a theoretical assessment. J. Biosoc. Sci. 43, 345-351.(doi:10.1017/S0021932010000659)
56. Henton, C. 1995 Pitch dynamism in female and male speech. Lang. Commun. 15, 43-61.(doi:10.1016/0271-5309(94)00011-Z)
57. Harrison, D. F. N. 1995 The anatomy and physiology of the mammalian larynx. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.