This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: During puberty, as boys transition into men, the dramatic drop in their vocal pitch has sparked a long-running debate among scientists. Why did such deep voices evolve in the first place?
Was it to attract female mates or to intimidate rival men? Or perhaps something else is going on. Boothroyd of the Department of Psychology at Durham University in the United Kingdom have now tried to answer these questions.
They did so by testing how a deep voice influences people. To see if body language and physical size changed how people judge voice pitch, the researchers filmed 17 men of varying heights, weights and physical builds. Each participant was filmed standing in full view, counting out loud from one to five.
Then the researchers digitally lowered and raised the pitch and vocal resonance of each recording. This created 12 different voice recordings of each man. Next up, it was time to put these clips to the test.
The researchers launched an online study that attracted hundreds of volunteers who had to view the video clips while hearing the altered voices. They then rated each man on the screen for traits like physical strength, fighting ability, dominance and attractiveness. The scientists also wanted to find out whether sight or sound mattered more.
To do this, they had volunteers rate the videos with no sound at all. They could then compare those ratings with the ratings of videos with sound. When the results came in, they showed a clear difference between dominance and attractiveness, as the researchers write in their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
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