Deep Voice Signals Potential Threat – How To Use Body Language For Dominance
Christopher Philip
Its no secrete that men and women differ in terms of dominance features. This is seen in body size and shape including muscularity, height and stature, facial features, as well as voice qualities.
Research led by David Puts, Pennsylvania State University, digs deeper by linking masculine voice qualities to body size, upper body strength, and even testosterone levels. The research concludes by linking deep voice depth with potential for physical aggression.
The study was conducted on both a US sample as well as Hadza, a primitive group of foragers located in Tanzania.
In the paper it is noted that boys undergo a strong change in their throat upon entering puberty. Thus the paper examines the evolutionary significance that drives the changes and why they may be adaptive.
Testosterone is the primary actor in deepening the voice. It works on the vocal folds in the larynx and consequently produces larger and thicker folds. In turn, air traveling over them vibrates at approximately half that of women’s. This produces a much lower Fo (fundamental frequency) – a measure of the lowest sound. In addition to changes in the vocal folds, men’s larynges also descend at puberty producing a much longer vocal tract.
It is thought that while deeper male voices could be the result of female selective pressures, it is more likely that masculine voices are the result of male-male competition.
Thus, it is dominance competitions and aggression between men that create men’s deeper voice. By this reasoning, a deep monotone male voice is more related to dominance perceptions and fighting ability rather than attractiveness.
Previous research certainly supports this.
In the current study, the researchers found that each dimension of voice including the Pf (formant position), Fo were correlated with certain body characteristics. Pf was linked to upper body strength and height, whereas Fo predicted testosterone levels. Fo – s.d. predicted physical aggressiveness. [note: The exact definition of these voice traits are not terribly important for our purpose – simply noting that masculine voice qualities are linked to specific body qualities and dominance is sufficient.]
Puts and coauthors liken voice depth to the sex differences in terms of smiling. Where women are more likely to smile and therefore affiliate while men do not. It could be that a deep voice is a sexually dimorphic difference signaling dominance in men which, unlike smiling, may be less under direct control – but possibly still influenced by sex hormones. In other words, men don’t smile and have deep voices specifically because they have high testosterone.
The authors also make note that lower voices may serve to exaggerate body size as they are linked to height and also strength.
However according to their measurements, a lower voice is also linked to actual aggression, suggesting that a deep voice is, in fact, an “honest signal” of physical threat.
Image Credit: David Goehring
GET OUT OF MY BOX! – SOCIAL EXPERIMENT (use link below to start video at 19:24):
(at 19:24): http://youtu.be/_TijDInhnEg?t=19m24s
Resources
David A. Puts, Coren L. Apicella and Rodrigo A. Cárdenas. Masculine Voices Signal Men’s Threat Potential in Forager and Industrial Societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society. 2019. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0829