Abstract Pitch is the most perceptually salient feature of the voice, yet it is approximately five standard deviations lower in men than in women, a degree of sexual dimorphism exceeding that of all extant nonhuman apes. Evidence from Western samples suggests that low-frequency vocalizations may have augmented male mating success ancestrally by intimidating competitors and/or attracting mates. However, data are lacking from small-scale societies. We therefore investigated sexual selection on male pitch (measured by fundamental frequency, fo) in a population of Bolivian forager-horticulturists, the Tsimane. We found that experimentally lowering fo in audio clips of men speaking increased perceptions of fighting ability but did not affect perceptions of prestige and decreased their attractiveness to women. Further, men with lower speaking fo reported higher numbers of offspring, and this was mediated by the reproductive rates of men's wives, suggesting that men with lower fo achieved higher reproductive success by having access to more fertile mates. These results thus provide new evidence that men's fo has been shaped by intrasexual competition.

中文翻译：

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亚马逊觅食园艺家中男性音调低的性选择

摘要 音高是声音在感知上最显着的特征，但男性的音高比女性低约五个标准差，性别二态性的程度超过所有现存的非人类猿类。来自西方样本的证据表明，低频发声可能通过恐吓竞争对手和/或吸引配偶来增加雄性交配的成功率。然而，缺乏来自小规模社会的数据。因此，我们调查了玻利维亚觅食园艺家 Tsimane 的雄性音高（通过基本频率 fo 测量）的性选择。我们发现，通过实验降低男性说话音频片段中的 fo 会增加对战斗能力的看法，但不会影响对声望的看法，并降低他们对女性的吸引力。更多，fo 较低的男性报告的后代数量较多，这是由男性妻子的生殖率介导的，这表明 fo 较低的男性通过获得更多有生育能力的配偶而获得了更高的生殖成功。因此，这些结果提供了新的证据，证明男性的 fo 是由性内竞争塑造的。