ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2016
Sexual selection on male vocal fundamental frequency in humans and other anthropoids.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 185 citations in OpenAlex.
- Animal acoustic communication has a conserved optimal rhythm within the neural delta range.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Acoustic and perceptual evidence relevant to sexual selection in human voice dimorphism.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Developmental trajectories in laryngeal anatomy of California mice (Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Behind a Voice There is a Speaker: Why Vocal Emotion Research Needs to Become 'Personal'.Affective science · 2025Review
- The role of musical pitch in long-distance defensive signaling.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- Listeners are biased towards voices of young speakers and female speakers when discriminating voices.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2025Article
- Mate assessment based on physical characteristics: a review and reflection.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Rhythmic Roots: The Adaptive Functions of Vocal Isochrony and Its Role in Human Music and Language Evolution.Psihologijske teme = Psychological themes = Psychological topics · 2025Article
- Defining octave equivalence and a comparative approach to understanding its biological foundations.Current anthropology · 2024Article
- Globally, songs and instrumental melodies are slower and higher and use more stable pitches than speech: A Registered Report.Science advances · 2024Article
- Sex Differences in Cochlear Transcriptomes in Horseshoe Bats.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Comparing accuracy in voice-based assessments of biological speaker traits across speech types.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Group size and mating system predict sex differences in vocal fundamental frequency in anthropoid primates.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Sequence variants affecting voice pitch in humans.Science advances · 2023Article
- Post-pubertal developmental trajectories of laryngeal shape and size in humans.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Articulatory effects on perceptions of men's status and attractiveness.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Testosterone, oxytocin and co-operation: A hypothesis for the origin and function of music.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- The origins and function of musical performance.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Evolution of Artistic and Athletic Propensities: Testing of Intersexual Selection and Intrasexual Competition.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Hearing the physical condition: The relationship between sexually dimorphic vocal traits and underlying physiology.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
19 authors at 12 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
In many primates, including humans, the vocalizations of males and females differ dramatically, with male vocalizations and vocal anatomy often seeming to exaggerate apparent body size. These traits may be favoured by sexual selection because low-frequency male vocalizations intimidate rivals and/or attract females, but this hypothesis has not been systematically tested across primates, nor is it clear why competitors and potential mates should attend to vocalization frequencies. Here we show across anthropoids that sexual dimorphism in fundamental frequency (F0) increased during evolutionary transitions towards polygyny, and decreased during transitions towards monogamy. Surprisingly, humans exhibit greater F0 sexual dimorphism than any other ape. We also show that low-F0 vocalizations predict perceptions of men's dominance and attractiveness, and predict hormone profiles (low cortisol and high testosterone) related to immune function. These results suggest that low male F0 signals condition to competitors and mates, and evolved in male anthropoids in response to the intensity of mating competition.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.