Sexual Dimorphism Of Voice And Intimate Relationship Quality

Vocal indicators can provide reliable effective and inferential information about intrinsic state or quality of the voice sender.In general,listeners selectively pay attention to the information contained in the voice and adjust their behavior accordingly,thereby improving their own evolutionary fitness.People will pay more attention to the role of voice with the increasing social interaction.The sexual dimorphism of voice refers to the difference in voice between male and female after the development of secondary sexual characteristics in adolescence: masculinity and feminity.Sexual dimorphism visual cues,such as faces and bodies,are more intuitive than vocal cues.Researches on sexual dimorphism vocal cues started relatively late,and mostly focusing on social perceptions,such as physical strength,social dominance,trustworthiness,cooperation,personality traits and social election.Sexual dimorphism of voice also influence perceptions of attractiveness: men prefer women with feminine voice and women prefer men with masculine voice.This general preference was attribute to individual's own mate value as well as the evolutionary significance of the voice.Feminine voice of women can provide reliable cues to health and fertility,while masculine voice of men can provide reliable cues to health,excellent genes and abundant social resources.Gender-representative voice can predict an individual's sexual behavior and reproductive success,and influence an individual's social perception.It also play an important role in intimate relationships.Therefore,this thesis combines previous studies,based on evolution hypothesis of voice and sexual selection theory,mainly to explore the relationship between sexual dimorphic of voice and intimate relationship quality in the context Chinese culture.On the one hand,the intimate relationship dimension perception of sexual dimorphic of voice was discussed at the perceptual level(study 1 and 2);on the other hand,if sexual dimorphic voice will predict infidelity and relationship quality was verified at the behavioral level(study 3).It also explores the internal cognitive process between the two variables(study 4).Fundamental frequency(F0)and formant frequency are two important acoustic features that affect perceptions of masculinity and feminity.Voice pitch is the perception of fundamental frequency or corresponding harmonics and apparent vocal tract length(VTL)is the perception of the vocal tract resonances i.e.formant frequencies.Masculine voices are characterized by lower pitch and longer vocal tract length(lower fundamental frequency and formant frequency),feminine voices are characterized by higher pitch and shorter vocal tract length(higher fundamental frequency and formant frequency).Given that voice pitch has been studied by most of previous research,formant frequencies perhaps also play important role in partnership and mate preference.Formant frequency can significantly predict the perceptions of attractiveness,body size,age and physical strength,therefore,it may also have significant impact on the characteristics and psychology related to mate selection.This thesis focus on investigating the relationship between two parameters of voice(voice pitch and vocal tract length)and intimate relationship quality.At the perceptual level,study 1 demonstrated that women preferred men's voices with lowered voice pitch to those with raised voice pitch as well as with longer vocal tract length to those with shorter vocal tract length.Men preferred women's voices with raised voice pitch to those with lowered voice pitch as well as with shorter vocal tract length to those with longer vocal tract length.Further,this conclusion was verified by transgender orientation.This suggests that women with feminine voices and men with masculine voices are more likely to be individuals' preferred partners.However,there are risks associated with becoming partners with these individuals with high mate value(gender-representative voices).Previous studies found that the traits associated with increased risk of infidelity were the same as the preference ones of potential partners,so study 2 focused on the relationship between sexual dimorphic of voices and the perception of intimacy relationship dimension: infidelity and relationship investment.Experiment 3 explored the role of voice pitch and apparent vocal tract length in perceptions of infidelity and relationship investment with questionnaire survey.The results found that in general,women perceived men with lower voice pitch or longer vocal tract length as significantly more likely to invest time and effort with romantic partners,and less likely to be sexually faithful.Men perceived women with higher voice pitch or shorter vocal tract length as significantly more likely to invest time and effort with romantic partners,but more likely to be sexually faithful.This study also found that women's preferences for masculine voice in a long-term,but not short-term relationship context,were positively related to perceptions of relationship investment of time and effort,but negatively related to perceptions of infidelity in romantic relationships.Men's preferences for feminine voice in a long-term were positively related to perceptions of relationship investment of time and effort,but negatively related to perceptions of infidelity.The results of women differed from previous studies based on voice pitch abroad,in which women perceived men with lower-pitched voices as more likely to be infidelity and less likely to invest in intimate relationships.This result of western study was based on testosterone levels.Women need to weigh more gains and losses in their relationships,and the research on women's perception or preference of male sexual dysmorphic of voices has always been the intersection of psychological concerns in intimate relationship situations or in other social situations.Therefore,this study further explores the internal cognitive process of Chinese women's perception of intimacy relationship dimension in voice.Experiment 4A conduct cross-cultural validation of men's sexual dimorphism of voice in western countries on women's perception of infidelity and relationship quality,results found that the voice materials differences between Chinese men and Western men did not affect women's perception of the intimacy dimension.Secondly,experiment 4B investigated the effect of men's sexual dimorphism of voice for women's perception of personality traits associated with intimate relationships on women's perception of intimacy dimension,and found that the perception of “considerate” significantly predicted the perception of intimacy dimensions.Women generally rated masculine voices of men as more “considerate” than feminine ones,the stronger this perception was,the less likely they perceive men with masculine voices prone to infidelity and the more likely they perceive men with masculine voices invest more in intimate relationships.“Considerate” is an important personality trait that Chinese women attach importance to in their intimate relationship.Thirdly,experiment 4C found that men's sexual dimorphism voice on Chinese women's perception of intimacy dimension will be affected by traditional Chinese attitudes towards gender roles.Women with equal gender role attitudes attributed high infidelity risk to men with masculine voice,and perceived masculine voices as low investment to their relationship;Women with traditional gender role attitudes attributed high infidelity risk to men with feminine voice,and perceived feminine voices as low investment to their relationship.While,Chinese women are influenced more by the traditional gender roles attitude under Chinese traditional culture.Therefore,in the context of Chinese collectivism culture,women's attitudes towards gender roles are more traditional than those influenced by western individualist culture.In terms of the perception of sexual dimorphic male voice for intimacy dimension,there are certain differences with the research results in western countries.In addition,there is no difference in perception of the intimate dimension of sexual dimorphic voice pitch and vocal tract length.Study 3 mainly explored the relationship between intimate relationship quality and two key acoustic parameters at behavior level.The acoustic parameters involved in this study mainly include fundamental frequency(F0),F0 variation across the utterance(standard deviation in F0,F0-sd),and formant-based measures — vocal tract length(VTL)and formant position(Pf).Results showed that for men,sociosexuality and anticipated infidelity negatively correlated with F0,F0-sd,Pf and positively correlated with VTL;relationship commitment positively correlated with F0,F0-sd and negatively correlated with VTL;F0-sd correlated with mutual constructive communication and demand/withdrawal communication;avoidance attachment negatively correlated with F0 and F0-sd.Taken together,these results indicated that men with masculine voices are more likely to engage in infidelity,commit less to their relationships,and provide less constructive communication in their romantic relationships compared to men with feminine voices.The results of variance analysis further confirmed the relationship between F0,F0-sd and infidelity,relationship quality.While Pf and VTL played certain role in predicting sociosexuality,but had no significant correlation with infidelity and relationship quality.However,for women vocal traits did not correlated with infidelity intention and relationship quality related variables.The results support the evolution hypothesis of voice,sexual selection theory,as well as hormones and intimate relationship quality hypothesis in men.In general,the relationship between sexual dimorphic in female voice and intimate relationship quality is not very clear,and future research is necessary to explore whether other factors such as women's menstrual cycle stage can affect the relationship between sexual dimorphic in voice traits and intimate relationship quality.In order to further confirm the internal cognitive process of the relationship between intimate relationship quality and sexual dimorphic in voice,in study 4,the image assessment task and spatial cueing task were used to explore the relationship between sexual dimorphic vocal characteristics and the rating levels and attentional biases of the opposite-sex pictures.In experiment 6,sexy pictures were used as experimental materials.The results showed that men with lower F0 and F0-sd paid more attention to sexy pictures unconsciously: spending significantly more time on sexy pictures of the opposite sex than men with higher F0 and F0-sd.Pf and VTL did not correlate with rating levels as well as residence time on the opposite-sex sexy pictures.For women,neither voice parameters correlated with rating levels and residence time.In experiment 7,using the spatial cueing task and four different levels of facial attractiveness(attractive male,average male,attractive female,and average female faces)to investigate the attentional biases of individuals with different sexual dimorphic vocal traits toward different levels of opposite-sex facial attractiveness.The results showed that men with lower F0 and F0-sd whose attentional biases toward opposite-sex targets were more than those with higher F0 and F0-sd,men with lower F0 and F0-sd had rapid attentional involvement with both attractive and average opposite-sex faces,and for men with lower F0 the attractive opposite-sex targets occupied more attentional resources.However,in the average reaction time toward opposite-sex targets,there were no significant difference between men with high Pf and men with low Pf.Neither men with high Pf nor men with low Pf present attention involvement or attention escape difficulties toward opposite-sex targets with different attractiveness levels.Similarly,in the average reaction time toward opposite-sex targets,there were no significant difference between men with high VTL and men with low VTL.Neither men with high VTL nor men with low VTL present attention involvement or attention escape difficulties toward opposite-sex targets with different attractiveness levels.For women,there was no significant difference in attentional biases toward opposite-sex targets between higher F0,F0-sd,Pf,VTL group and lower groups.This indicates that for men there is a significant difference in the attentional biases toward opposite-sex targets between high and low group based on fundamental frequency,while there is no significant difference in the attentional biases toward opposite-sex targets between high and low group based on format frequency.Generally,this study suggests that men with masculine voice(based on fundamental frequency)have more unrestricted behaviors and infidelity tendencies,which may be caused by the fact that they pay more attention to the opposite-sex targets.In conclusion,the current study systematically discusses the relationship between sexual dimorphic in voice parameters(fundamental frequency and formant frequency)and intimate relationship quality at the perceptual level and the behavioral level respectively,and makes a preliminary exploration of the internal cognitive process of the relationship between them.Fundamental frequency and formant frequency are two different characteristics of voice and characterized by sexual dimorphic,while they play different roles in different fields of voice research.In intimate relationship,fundamental frequency plays more important role in predicting the relationship quality than formant frequency.The findings support evolution hypothesis of voice,sexual selection theory in men,further expanding the vocal research in evolutionary psychology.Vocal perception of future infidelity and relationship quality can serve as an adaptive heuristic to help individuals avoid the consequences associated with infidelity.However,in this study,the relationship between sexual dimorphic in voices and relationship quality at perception and behavior levels are inconsistent,then the perception of intimate relationship dimension by sexual dimorphic in voices cannot be used as an indicator of actual behavioral in both men and women.