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Abstract
Potential differences between homosexual and heterosexual men have been studied on a diverse set of social and biological traits. Regarding acoustic features of speech, researchers have hypothesized a feminization of such characteristics in homosexual men, but previous investigations have so far produced mixed results. Moreover, most studies have been conducted with English-speaking populations, which calls for further cross-linguistic examinations. Lastly, no studies investigated so far the potential role of testosterone in the association between sexual orientation and speech acoustic features. To fill these gaps, we explored potential differences in acoustic features of speech between homosexual and heterosexual native French men and investigated whether the former showed a trend toward feminization by comparing theirs to that of heterosexual native French women. Lastly, we examined whether testosterone levels mediated the association between speech acoustic features and sexual orientation. We studied four sexually dimorphic acoustic features relevant for the qualification of feminine versus masculine voices: the fundamental frequency, its modulation, and two understudied acoustic features of speech, the harmonics-to-noise ratio (a proxy of vocal breathiness) and the jitter (a proxy of vocal roughness). Results showed that homosexual men displayed significantly higher pitch modulation patterns and less breathy voices compared to heterosexual men, with values shifted toward those of heterosexual women. Lastly, testosterone levels did not influence any of the investigated acoustic features. Combined with the literature conducted in other languages, our findings bring new support for the feminization hypothesis and suggest that the feminization of some acoustic features could be shared across languages.
Highlights
The gender atypicality hypothesis suggests that gender atypical traits in homosexuals could be used as cues to indicate sexual orientation
Archives of Sexual Behavior (2020) 49:2575–2583 et al, 1999; Rieger et al, 2010; Valentova et al, 2011; Wang & Kosinski, 2018). These findings emphasize the idea that specific phenotypic traits may be influenced by sexual orientation and may be used as cues to detect or advertise it. Another important trait that seems to be influenced by sexual orientation and used as a cue to assess is speech. (For a detailed review, see Munson & Babel, 2007.) For example, popular stereotypes regarding the speech of homosexual men generally attribute speech patterns characteristic of the opposite sex, i.e., a broadly feminized speech, such as a higher fundamental frequency (i.e., F0, the acoustic correlate of voice pitch) and a greater variation in the intonation (i.e., F0-SD, the local variations of F0 throughout speech, referred to as vocal modulation) (Cartei & Reby, 2012; Munson & Babel, 2007)
This study offers an interesting take on the interaction between sexual orientation and acoustic features of speech in a French speaker sample
Summary
The gender atypicality hypothesis suggests that gender atypical traits in homosexuals could be used as cues to indicate sexual orientation. Archives of Sexual Behavior (2020) 49:2575–2583 et al, 1999; Rieger et al, 2010; Valentova et al, 2011; Wang & Kosinski, 2018) These findings emphasize the idea that specific phenotypic traits may be influenced by sexual orientation and may be used as cues to detect or advertise it. There is no clear evidence that the mean fundamental frequency differs between homosexual and heterosexual men (Gaudio, 1994; Lerman & Damsté, 1969; Munson et al, 2006b; Rendall et al, 2008; Rogers, Jacobs, & Smyth, 2001; Smyth, Jacobs, & Rogers, 2003; but see Baeck, Corthals, & Borsel, 2011), results toward differences in pitch modulation patterns are more controversial: Some studies have found that homosexual men displayed greater variations in intonation, with values shifted toward those of women (Baeck et al, 2011; Gaudio, 1994), while others did not find any difference (Levon, 2006; Rogers et al, 2001). Homosexual men seem to produce a more expanded vowel space than heterosexual men for some specific vowels (Rendall et al, 2008), hyper-articulation being commonly found in female speech (Pierrehumbert et al, 2004)
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