Predicting strength from aggressive vocalizations versus speech in African bushland and urban communities
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11310%2F21%3A10436419" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11310/21:10436419 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=wpVbqIL8S-" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=wpVbqIL8S-</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0403" target="_blank" >10.1098/rstb.2020.0403</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Predicting strength from aggressive vocalizations versus speech in African bushland and urban communities
Original language description
The human voice carries information about a vocalizer's physical strength that listeners can perceive and that may influence mate choice and intrasexual competition. Yet, reliable acoustic correlates of strength in human speech remain unclear. Compared to speech, aggressive nonverbal vocalizations (roars) may function to maximize perceived strength, suggesting that their acoustic structure has been selected to communicate formidability, similar to the vocal threat displays of other animals. Here, we test this prediction in two non-WEIRD African samples: an urban community of Cameroonians and rural nomadic Hadza hunter-gatherers in the Tanzanian bushlands. Participants produced standardized speech and volitional roars and provided handgrip strength measures. Using acoustic analysis and information-theoretic multi-model inference and averaging techniques, we show that strength can be measured from both speech and roars, and as predicted, strength is more reliably gauged from roars than vowels, words or greetings. The acoustic structure of roars explains 40-70% of the variance in actual strength within adults of either sex. However, strength is predicted by multiple acoustic parameters whose combinations vary by sex, sample and vocal type. Thus, while roars may maximally signal strength, more research is needed to uncover consistent and likely interacting acoustic correlates of strength in the human voice. This article is part of the theme issue 'Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part I)'.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10602 - Biology (theoretical, mathematical, thermal, cryobiology, biological rhythm), Evolutionary biology
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GA18-10298S" target="_blank" >GA18-10298S: The social perception of sexual dimorphism in human face: A cross-cultural comparison</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2021
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
ISSN
0962-8436
e-ISSN
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Volume of the periodical
376
Issue of the periodical within the volume
1840
Country of publishing house
GB - UNITED KINGDOM
Number of pages
10
Pages from-to
20200403
UT code for WoS article
000713132600004
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85119963880