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  • Adaptations in humans for assessing physical strength from the voice

    Author(s)
    Sell, Aaron
    Bryant, Gregory A.
    Cosmides, Leda
    Tooby, John
    Sznycer, Daniel
    von Rueden, Christopher
    Krauss, Andre
    Gurven, Michael
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Sell, Aaron N.
    Year published
    2010
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    Recent research has shown that humans, like many other animals, have a specialization for assessing fighting ability from visual cues. Because it is probable that the voice contains cues of strength and formidability that are not available visually, we predicted that selection has also equipped humans with the ability to estimate physical strength from the voice. We found that subjects accurately assessed upper-body strength in voices taken from eight samples across four distinct populations and language groups: the Tsimane of Bolivia, Andean herder-horticulturalists and United States and Romanian college students. Regardless ...
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    Recent research has shown that humans, like many other animals, have a specialization for assessing fighting ability from visual cues. Because it is probable that the voice contains cues of strength and formidability that are not available visually, we predicted that selection has also equipped humans with the ability to estimate physical strength from the voice. We found that subjects accurately assessed upper-body strength in voices taken from eight samples across four distinct populations and language groups: the Tsimane of Bolivia, Andean herder-horticulturalists and United States and Romanian college students. Regardless of whether raters were told to assess height, weight, strength or fighting ability, they produced similar ratings that tracked upper-body strength independent of height and weight. Male voices were more accurately assessed than female voices, which is consistent with ethnographic data showing a greater tendency among males to engage in violent aggression. Raters extracted information about strength from the voice that was not supplied from visual cues, and were accurate with both familiar and unfamiliar languages. These results provide, to our knowledge, the first direct evidence that both men and women can accurately assess men's physical strength from the voice, and suggest that estimates of strength are used to assess fighting ability.
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    Journal Title
    Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
    Volume
    277
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0769
    Subject
    Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified
    Psychology not elsewhere classified
    Ethology and Sociobiology
    Biological Sciences
    Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
    Medical and Health Sciences
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/47861
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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