Men's voices as dominance signals: vocal fundamental and formant frequencies influence dominance attributions among men

Abstract

Men's vocal folds and vocal tracts are longer than those of women, resulting in lower fundamental frequency ( F 0) and closer spacing of formant frequencies (formant dispersion, D f) in men than in women. The evolutionary reasons for these sex differences are uncertain, but some evidence implicates male dominance competition. Previous manipulations of F 0 and D f affected perceptions of dominance among men. However, because these acoustic dimensions were manipulated simultaneously, their relative contributions are unclear. In unscripted recordings of men speaking to a competitor, we manipulated F 0 and D f independently and by similar perceptual amounts to examine effects on social and physical dominance ratings. Recordings lowered in either F 0 or D f were perceived as being produced by more dominant men than were the respective raised recordings. D f had a greater effect than did F 0, and both D f and F 0 tended to affect physical dominance more than social dominance, although this difference was significant only for D f.