Objectives

When judging a male speakers’ likelihood to act sexually unfaithful in a committed relationship, listeners rely on the speakers’ voice pitch such that lower voice pitch is perceived as indicating being more unfaithful. In line with this finding, a recent study (Schild et al. Behavioral Ecology, 2020) provided first evidence that voice pitch might indeed be a valid cue to sexual infidelity in men. In this study, male speakers with lower voice pitch, as indicated by lower mean fundamental frequency (mean F0), were actually more likely to report having been sexually unfaithful in the past. Although these results fit the literature on vocal perceptions in contexts of sexual selection, the study was, as stated by the authors, underpowered. Further, the study solely focused on male speakers, which leaves it open whether these findings are also transferable to female speakers.

Methods

We reanalyzed three datasets (Asendorpf et al. European Journal of Personality, 25, 16–30, 2011; Penke and Asendorpf Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1113–1135, 2008; Stern et al. 2020) that include voice recordings and infidelity data of overall 865 individuals (63,36% female) in order to test the replicability of and further extend past research.

Results

A significant negative link between mean F0 and self-reported infidelity was found in only one out of two datasets for men and only one out of three datasets for women. Two meta-analyses (accounting for the sample sizes and including data of Schild et al. 2020), however, suggest that lower mean F0 might be a valid indicator of higher probability of self-reported infidelity in both men and women.

Conclusions

In line with prior research, higher masculinity, as indicated by lower mean F0, seems to be linked to self-reported infidelity in both men and women. However, given methodological shortcomings, future studies should set out to further delve into these findings.

中文翻译：

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语音音调-一个人对忠贞不忠的有效指示？

目标

当判断男性演讲者在忠实的恋爱关系中表现出对性不忠行为的可能性时，听众会依靠说话者的语调，从而将较低的语调视为更不忠实。根据这一发现，最近进行了一项研究（Schild等，《行为生态学》（Behavioral Ecology）（2020年）提供的第一个证据，表明音高确实可能是男性性不忠的有效线索。在这项研究中，以较低的平均基频（平均F0）表示的具有较低音调的男性说话者实际上更有可能报告说自己过去曾发生过性不忠行为。尽管这些结果符合有关性选择背景下的声音感知的文献，但正如作者所言，这项研究的动力不足。此外，该研究仅针对男性说话者，这使得这些发现是否也可以转移给女性说话者成为开放。

方法

我们重新分析了包括语音录音的三个数据集（Asendorpf等人，European Journal of Personality， 2011年第25、16-30日； Penke和Asendorpf人格与社会心理学杂志，第95、1113-1135年，2008； Stern等人，2020）。和总共865个个体（女性占63.36％）的不忠数据，以测试这些研究的可复制性并进一步扩展以往的研究。

结果

在男性的两个数据集中只有一个数据集和女性的三个数据集中只有一个数据集，发现平均F0与自我报告的不忠之间存在显着的负相关关系。然而，两项荟萃分析（考虑了样本量并包括Schild等人2020的数据）表明，较低的平均F0可能是男性和女性自我报告不忠可能性更高的有效指标。

结论

与先前的研究一致，较高的男性气质（以较低的平均F0表示）似乎与男性和女性自我报告的不忠行为有关。但是，由于方法上的缺陷，未来的研究应该着手进一步研究这些发现。