Voice correlates of mating success in men: examining "contests" versus "mate choice" modes of sexual selection.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional observational study linking vocal acoustics to self-reported behavior (graded by non-clinical design analogy)
PubMed 20369377 · doi:10.1007/s10508-010-9625-0
What was done
Researchers recorded 111 men interacting with a male competitor and with a woman in a dating-competition setup. Audio from the competitive and courtship interactions was analyzed for five acoustic parameters: fundamental frequency standard deviation (F0-SD), mean fundamental frequency (mean F0), intensity, duration, and formant dispersion (Df), as well as dominant and attractive linguistic content. These parameters were analyzed as predictors of self-reported past-year female sexual partners, controlling for participant age and sociosexual orientation inventory (SOI) scores.
What was found
Lower F0-SD (a more monotone voice) and more dominant linguistic content significantly predicted a higher number of past-year sexual partners after controlling for age and SOI. Mean F0 and formant dispersion (Df) were not significant predictors. The abstract does not report specific numerical values, effect sizes, or test statistics.
Why it matters
This study suggests that dynamic vocal modulation reflecting dominance may be more strongly tied to men's mating success than static vocal traits like average pitch or vocal tract length.
Limits
The sample was relatively small (111 men) and drawn from an artificial laboratory competition setting. Mating success relied entirely on retrospective self-reports of sexual partners, which are susceptible to social desirability and recall bias. Numerical effect sizes are absent from the abstract, and the cross-sectional design cannot establish causality.
Cited by
- supports A study by David Puts and colleagues found that male physical formidability rated from video clips predicted the number of sexual partners men had over the following 18 months, whereas rated sexual attractiveness did not.