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

中文翻译：

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男性音高介导客观和感知到的强大之间的关系

摘要 声学信号在包括人类在内的多种物种的性内交配竞争中发挥作用。已提出人类男性的低声调代表强大的诚实信号。尽管男性的音高会影响对体型和支配地位的感知，但它与诸如体型和力量等强大的客观衡量标准的相关性相对较弱。因此，一些作者认为，男性低沉的音调不是强大的有效信号，而是具有欺骗性和显着性，因为它劫持了将低频声音视为来自较大来源的倾向。在本文中，我们考虑了与这种感知开发假设相关的理论和经验问题，并询问男性音高是否会传递有关强大的信息。我们利用中介模型来调查从美国（n = 231 名男性发言者，565 名男性评估者）和加拿大（n = 74 名男性发言者，108 名女性评估者，65男性评分员）。在这两个数据集中，男性音高调节了客观（以身高衡量）和感知到的强大之间的关系。总的来说，这些结果表明男性的音高从信号者到接收者传递了有关强大的信息。男性音调介导了客观（以身高衡量）和感知到的强大之间的关系。总的来说，这些结果表明男性的音高从信号者到接收者传递了有关强大的信息。男性音调介导了客观（以身高衡量）和感知到的强大之间的关系。总的来说，这些结果表明男性的音高从信号者到接收者传递了有关强大的信息。