No evidence that averaging voices influences attractiveness.
Journal
Scientific reports
ISSN: 2045-2322
Titre abrégé: Sci Rep
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101563288
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
07 May 2024
07 May 2024
Historique:
received:
24
11
2023
accepted:
30
04
2024
medline:
8
5
2024
pubmed:
8
5
2024
entrez:
7
5
2024
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Vocal attractiveness influences important social outcomes. While most research on the acoustic parameters that influence vocal attractiveness has focused on the possible roles of sexually dimorphic characteristics of voices, such as fundamental frequency (i.e., pitch) and formant frequencies (i.e., a correlate of body size), other work has reported that increasing vocal averageness increases attractiveness. Here we investigated the roles these three characteristics play in judgments of the attractiveness of male and female voices. In Study 1, we found that increasing vocal averageness significantly decreased distinctiveness ratings, demonstrating that participants could detect manipulations of vocal averageness in this stimulus set and using this testing paradigm. However, in Study 2, we found no evidence that increasing averageness significantly increased attractiveness ratings of voices. In Study 3, we found that fundamental frequency was negatively correlated with male vocal attractiveness and positively correlated with female vocal attractiveness. By contrast with these results for fundamental frequency, vocal attractiveness and formant frequencies were not significantly correlated. Collectively, our results suggest that averageness may not necessarily significantly increase attractiveness judgments of voices and are consistent with previous work reporting significant associations between attractiveness and voice pitch.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38714709
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-61064-9
pii: 10.1038/s41598-024-61064-9
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
10488Subventions
Organisme : Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
ID : EP/T023783/1
Organisme : Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
ID : RGPIN-2023-05146
Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s).
Références
DeGroot, T., Aime, F., Johnson, S. G. & Kluemper, D. Does talking the talk help walking the walk? An examination of the effect of vocal attractiveness in leader effectiveness. Leadersh. Q. 22(4), 680–689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.05.008 (2011).
doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.05.008
Klofstad, C. A., Anderson, R. C. & Peters, S. Sounds like a winner: Voice pitch influences perception of leadership capacity in both men and women. Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 279(1738), 2698–2704. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.0311 (2012).
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.0311
Anderson, R. C., Klofstad, C. A., Mayew, W. J. & Venkatachalam, M. Vocal fry may undermine the success of young women in the labor market. PLoS ONE 9(5), e97506. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0097506 (2014).
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097506
pubmed: 24870387
pmcid: 4037169
Tylečková, L., Prokopová, Z. & Skarnitzl, R. The effect of voice quality on hiring decisions. AUC PHILOLOGICA 2017(3), 109–120. https://doi.org/10.14712/24646830.2017.37 (2017).
doi: 10.14712/24646830.2017.37
Apicella, C. L. & Feinberg, D. R. Voice pitch alters mate-choice-relevant perception in hunter–gatherers. Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 276(1659), 1077–1082. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.1542 (2009).
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1542
Pisanski, K. & Bryant, G. A. The evolution of voice perception. In The Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies (eds Eidsheim, N. & Meizel, K.) 269–300 (Oxford University Press, 2019).
Pisanski, K. & Feinberg, D. R. Vocal attractiveness. In The Oxford Handbook of Voice Perception (eds Frühholz, S. & Belin, P.) (Oxford University Press, 2018).
Puts, D. A., Jones, B. C. & DeBruine, L. M. Sexual selection on human faces and voices. J. Sex Res. 49(2–3), 227–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2012.658924 (2012).
doi: 10.1080/00224499.2012.658924
pubmed: 22380590
Saxton, T. K., Mackey, L. L., McCarty, K. & Neave, N. A lover or a fighter? Opposing sexual selection pressures on men’s vocal pitch and facial hair. Behav. Ecol. 27(2), 512–519. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arv178 (2016).
doi: 10.1093/beheco/arv178
pubmed: 27004013
Dabbs, J. M. & Mallinger, A. High testosterone levels predict low voice pitchamong men. Personal. Individ. Differ. 27(4), 801–804. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(98)00272-4 (1999).
doi: 10.1016/S0191-8869(98)00272-4
Evans, S., Neave, N., Wakelin, D. & Hamilton, C. The relationship between testosterone and vocal frequencies in human males. Physiol. Behav. 93(4–5), 783–788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.11.033 (2008).
doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.11.033
pubmed: 18155094
Feinberg, D. R., Jones, B. C., Little, A. C., Burt, D. M. & Perrett, D. I. Manipulations of fundamental and formant frequencies influence the attractiveness of human male voices. Anim. Behav. 69(3), 561–568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.06.012 (2005).
doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.06.012
Harries, M., Hawkins, S., Hacking, J. & Hughes, I. Changes in the male voice at puberty: Vocal fold length and its relationship to the fundamental frequency of the voice. J. Laryngol. Otol. 112(5), 451–454. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022215100140757 (1998).
doi: 10.1017/S0022215100140757
pubmed: 9747473
Jones, B. C., Feinberg, D. R., DeBruine, L. M., Little, A. C. & Vukovic, J. A domain-specific opposite-sex bias in human preferences for manipulated voice pitch. Anim. Behav. 79(1), 57–62 (2010).
doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.10.003
Re, D. E., O’Connor, J. J. M., Bennett, P. J. & Feinberg, D. R. Preferences for very low and very high voice pitch in humans. PLoS ONE 7(3), e32719. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032719 (2012).
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032719
pubmed: 22403701
pmcid: 3293852
Schild, C. et al. Linking human male vocal parameters to perceptions, body morphology, strength and hormonal profiles in contexts of sexual selection. Sci. Rep. 10(1), 21296 (2020).
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-77940-z
pubmed: 33277544
pmcid: 7719159
Simmons, L. W., Peters, M. & Rhodes, G. Low pitched voices are perceived as masculine and attractive but do they predict semen quality in Men?. PLoS ONE 6(12), e29271. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029271 (2011).
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029271
pubmed: 22216228
pmcid: 3244455
Borkowska, B. & Pawlowski, B. Female voice frequency in the context of dominance and attractiveness perception. Anim. Behav. 82(1), 55–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.03.024 (2011).
doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.03.024
Cussigh, G., Ballester-Arnal, R., Gil-Llario, M. D., Giménez-García, C. & Castro-Calvo, J. Fundamental frequency of the female’s voice: A cross-country empirical study on its influence on social and sexual selection. Personal. Individ. Differ. 160, 109937. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.109937 (2020).
doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2020.109937
Feinberg, D. R., DeBruine, L. M., Jones, B. C. & Perrett, D. I. The role of femininity and averageness of voice pitch in aesthetic judgments of women’s voices. Perception 37(4), 615–623 (2008).
doi: 10.1068/p5514
pubmed: 18546667
Feinberg, D. R. et al. Integrating fundamental and formant frequencies in women’s preferences for men’s voices. Behav. Ecol. 22(6), 1320–1325 (2011).
doi: 10.1093/beheco/arr134
Hodges-Simeon, C. R., Gaulin, S. J. C. & Puts, D. A. Different vocal parameters predict perceptions of dominance and attractiveness. Hum. Nat. 21(4), 406–427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-010-9101-5 (2010).
doi: 10.1007/s12110-010-9101-5
pubmed: 21212816
pmcid: 2995855
Collins, S. A. & Missing, C. Vocal and visual attractiveness are related in women. Anim. Behav. 65(5), 997–1004. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2003.2123 (2003).
doi: 10.1006/anbe.2003.2123
Babel, M., McGuire, G. & King, J. Towards a more nuanced view of vocal attractiveness. PLoS ONE 9(2), e88616. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088616 (2014).
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088616
pubmed: 24586358
pmcid: 3929563
Bruckert, L. et al. Vocal attractiveness increases by averaging. Curr. Biol. 20(2), 116–120 (2010).
doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.11.034
pubmed: 20129047
Belin, P., Bestelmeyer, P. E. G., Latinus, M. & Watson, R. Understanding voice perception: Understanding voice perception. Br. J. Psychol. 102(4), 711–725. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.2011.02041.x (2011).
doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.2011.02041.x
pubmed: 21988380
Winkielman, P., Halberstadt, J., Fazendeiro, T. & Catty, S. Prototypes are attractive because they are easy on the mind. Psychol. Sci. 17(9), 9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01785.x (2006).
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01785.x
Lee, K., Byatt, G. & Rhodes, G. Caricature effects, distinctiveness, and identification: Testing the face-space framework. Psychol. Sci. 11(5), 379–385 (2000).
doi: 10.1111/1467-9280.00274
pubmed: 11228908
Little, A. C. & Hancock, P. J. The role of masculinity and distinctiveness in judgments of human male facial attractiveness. Br. J. Psychol. 93(4), 451–464 (2002).
doi: 10.1348/000712602761381349
pubmed: 12519528
Rhodes, G. & Tremewan, T. Averageness, exaggeration, and facial attractiveness. Psychol. Sci. 7(2), 105–110 (1996).
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00338.x
Rhodes, G., Carey, S., Byatt, G. & Proffitt, F. Coding spatial variations in faces and simple shapes: a test of two models. Vis. Res. 38(15–16), 2307–2321 (1998).
doi: 10.1016/S0042-6989(97)00470-7
pubmed: 9798001
Rhodes, G., Sumich, A. & Byatt, G. Are average facial configurations attractive only because of their symmetry?. Psychol. Sci. 10(1), 52–58 (1999).
doi: 10.1111/1467-9280.00106
Kawahara, H., Morise, M., Takahashi, T., Nisimura, R., Irino, T., Banno, H. Tandem-STRAIGHT: A temporally stable power spectral representation for periodic signals and applications to interference-free spectrum, F0, and aperiodicity estimation. In 2008 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing 3933–3936 (IEEE, 2008).
Feinberg, D. VoiceLab: Software for fully reproducible automated voice analysis. Proc. Interspeech 2022, 351–355 (2022).
doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2022-113
R Core Team, R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. http://www.R-project.org/ (2021).
Wickham, H. Tidyverse: Easily install and load the 'Tidyverse' (Version 1.3.1). [Computer software]. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/tidyverse/index.html (2021).
Zhu, H. KableExtra: Construct complex table with 'kable' and pipe syntax. (Version 1.3.4) [Computer software]. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/kableExtra (2021).
Kuznetsova, A., Brockhoff, P. B. & Christensen, R. H. B. lmerTest package: Tests in linear mixed effects models. J. Stat. Softw. 82(13), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v082.i13 (2017).
doi: 10.18637/jss.v082.i13
Long, J. A. Jtools: Analysis and presentation of social scientific data. (Version 2.2.0). [Computer software]. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/jtools (2022).
Wickham, H. Stringr: Simple, Consistent Wrappers for Common String Operations. R package version 1.5.0. https://github.com/tidyverse/stringr , https://stringr.tidyverse.org (2022).
Barr, D. J., Levy, R., Scheepers, C. & Tily, H. J. Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal. J. Mem. Lang. 68(3), 255–278 (2013).
doi: 10.1016/j.jml.2012.11.001
Barr, D. J. Random effects structure for testing interactions in linear mixed-effects models. Front. Psychol. 4, 328 (2013).
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00328
pubmed: 23761778
pmcid: 3672519
Andraszewicz, S., Yamagishi, J., & King, S. Vocal attractiveness of statistical speech synthesisers. In 2011 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP) 5368–5371 (IEEE, 2011).
Reby, D. et al. Red deer stags use formants as assessment cues during intrasexual agonistic interactions. Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 272(1566), 941–947 (2005).
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2004.2954