Abstract Men's voices may provide cues to overall condition; however, little research has assessed whether health status is reliably associated with perceivable voice parameters. In Study 1, we investigated whether listeners could classify voices belonging to men with either relatively lower or higher self-reported health. Participants rated voices for speaker health, disease likelihood, illness frequency, and symptom severity, as well as attractiveness (women only) and dominance (men only). Listeners' were mostly unable to judge the health of male speakers from their voices; however, men rated the voices of men with better self-reported health as sounding more dominant. In Study 2, we tested whether men's vocal parameters (fundamental frequency mean and variation, apparent vocal tract length, and harmonics-to-noise ratio) and aspects of their self-reported health predicted listeners' health and disease resistance ratings of those voices. Speakers' fundamental frequency (fo) negatively predicted ratings of health. However, speakers' self-reported health did not predict ratings of health made by listeners. In Study 3, we investigated whether separately manipulating two sexually dimorphic vocal parameters—fo and apparent vocal tract length (VTL)—affected listeners' health ratings. Listeners rated men's voices with lower fo (but not VTL) as healthier, supporting findings from Study 2. Women rated voices with lower fo and VTL as more attractive, and men rated them as more dominant. Thus, while both VTL and fo affect dominance and attractiveness judgments, only fo appears to affect health judgments. Results of the above studies suggest that, although listeners assign higher health ratings to speakers with more masculine fo, these ratings may not be accurate at tracking speakers' self-rated health.

中文翻译：

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听众能从他们的声音中评估男性自我报告的健康状况吗？

摘要 男性的声音可以为整体状况提供线索；然而，很少有研究评估健康状况是否与可感知的语音参数可靠相关。在研究 1 中，我们调查了听众是否可以对属于自我报告健康状况相对较低或较高的男性的声音进行分类。参与者根据说话者的健康状况、疾病可能性、疾病频率和症状严重程度，以及吸引力（仅限女性）和优势（仅限男性）对声音进行评分。听众大多无法从声音中判断男性演讲者的健康状况；然而，男性认为自我报告的健康状况较好的男性的声音听起来更有优势。在研究 2 中，我们测试了男性的声音参数（基本频率平均值和变化、明显声道长度、和谐波噪声比）以及他们自我报告的健康状况预测了听众对这些声音的健康和抗病能力评级。说话者的基本频率 (fo) 负面预测健康等级。然而，演讲者自我报告的健康状况并不能预测听众对健康的评价。在研究 3 中，我们调查了分别操纵两个性别二态的声音参数——fo 和明显声道长度 (VTL)——是否会影响听众的健康评级。听众认为具有较低 fo（但不是 VTL）的男性声音更健康，支持研究 2 的结果。女性认为具有较低 fo 和 VTL 的声音更具吸引力，而男性认为她们更具支配性。因此，虽然 VTL 和 fo 都影响优势和吸引力判断，但似乎只有 fo 影响健康判断。