The traditional assumption
within the research literature on human sexually dimorphic traits has been that
many sex differences have arisen from intersexual selection. More recently,
however, there has been a shift toward the idea that many male features, including
male lower-pitched voices and male beard growth, might have arisen
predominantly through intrasexual selection: that is, to serve the purpose of
male-male competition instead of mate attraction.
In this study, using a unique
set of video stimuli, we measured people's perceptions of the dominance and
attractiveness of men who differ both in terms of voice pitch (4 levels from
lower to higher pitched) and beard growth (4 levels from clean shaven to a
month's hair growth).
We found a nonlinear relationship between lower pitch and
increased attractiveness; men's vocal attractiveness peaked at around 96 Hz.
Beard growth had equivocal effects on attractiveness judgments. In contrast,
perceptions of men's dominance simply increased with increasing masculinity
(i.e., with lower-pitched voices and greater beard growth).
Together, these
results suggest that the optimal level of physical masculinity might differ
depending on whether the outcome is social dominance or mate attraction. These
dual selection pressures might maintain some of the documented variability in
male physical and behavioral masculinity that we see today.
Below: Estimated marginal means of attractiveness ratings of each of the voice pitch and facial hair combinations
Full article at: http://goo.gl/XH5809
- 1Department of Psychology, Northumbria University , Northumberland Building, Ellison Place, Newcastle NE1 8ST , UK.
- Behav Ecol. 2016 Mar-Apr;27(2):512-519. Epub 2015 Nov 1.
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