Male voice pitch mediates the relationship between objective and perceived formidability

Acoustic signals function in intrasexual mating competition a wide variety of species, including humans. The low voice pitch human males has been proposed to represent an honest signal formidability. Although men affects perceptions size and dominance, it is relatively weakly associated with objective measures formidability such as body strength. As result, some authors have argued that male not valid but deceptive salient only because hijacks tendency perceive lower frequency sounds emanating from larger sources. In this paper, we consider theoretical empirical issues perceptual exploitation hypothesis ask whether transmits information about We utilize mediation models investigate data collected university students the U.S. (n = 231 speakers, 565 raters) Canada 74 108 female raters, 65 raters). both sets, mediated relationship between (measured by height) perceived Collectively, these results indicate men’s signaler receiver.