Pitch lowering enhances men's perceived aggressive intent, not fighting ability

Abstract

Voice pitch is the primary perceptual correlate of fundamental frequency (fo) and describes how low or high a voice is perceived by listeners. Prior research showed that men whose habitual voice pitch is lower are perceived to have stronger fighting ability. However, voice pitch is also flexible and can thus be used facultatively to signal states that change situationally, such as current aggressive intent (i.e., readiness to use aggression). Drawing on motivation-structural-rules theory, this research tests the hypothesis that male speakers will be perceived as more likely to attack when they lower (compared to raise) their pitch to address an adversary in a conflict situation. Three experiments using male speakers and listeners supported this hypothesis, both with and without controlling for the perception of the speakers' fighting ability. In contrast, the same experiments found no evidence that pitch lowering enhanced the speakers' perceived fighting ability after controlling for their perceived aggressive intent. Moreover, we found mixed evidence that the speakers' perceived physical strength interacted with pitch modulation to influence their perceived aggressive intent. On balance, these findings show that, at least for men, pitch modulation is primarily an aggressive-intent signal assessed independently of signalers' fighting ability. Future research should distinguish between perceptions of aggressive-intent and fighting-ability when examining the perceptual effects of male voice-pitch modulation in intrasexual competition.