Does Men’s Voice Pitch Signal Formidability? A Reply to Feinberg et al.

Low-frequency vocalizations may have evolved in males of some species to exaggerate apparent size by exploiting pre-existing sensory biases [ 1 Fitch W.T. Reby D. The descended larynx is not uniquely human. Proc. Biol. Sci. 2001; 268 : 1669-1675 Crossref PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar ]. Feinberg, Jones, and Armstrong [ 2 Feinberg D.R. et al. Sensory exploitation, sexual dimorphism, and human voice pitch. Trends Ecol. Evol. 2018; 33 : 901-903 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar ] (henceforth FJA) adopt this explanation for men’s low voice pitch compared to women’s: ancestral males with a lower voice pitch sounded larger to conspecifics and consequently won mating opportunities by attracting mates and/or intimidating rivals [ 3 Puts D.A. et al. Sexual selection on male vocal fundamental frequency in humans and other anthropoids. Proc. Biol. Sci. 2016; 283 : 1829 Crossref Scopus (29) Google Scholar ]. FJA further suggest that voice pitch is not in fact a valid cue to male formidability, and that people’s tendency to perceive it as such is a byproduct of a predisposition, evolved in other contexts, to ascribe largeness to low pitch. We contend that selection is unlikely to have maintained costly deference to a character state that is unrelated to formidability