Babygael
|
Men act like dogsA male dog will whine and beg in deference to a stronger dog, but will lower its voice into a guttural growl if it thinks it has a fighting chance.
Men unconsciously do a similar thing, scientists say.
A new study finds that the lower the pitch of a man's voice, the more physically dominant other men think he is. And men lower their voice pitch when addressing a man they believe to be less dominant than themselves, but raise it when speaking to someone they think is more dominant.
The findings, detailed in the July issue of the journal of Evolution and Human Behavior, could help explain why vocal pitch in men and women are so different.
Big and low
Vocal pitch, determined by the main frequencies in a voice, is about half as high in men as in women. This difference has traditionally been explained as a product of sexual selection, in which women favored men with lower-pitched voices.
One reason women might prefer men who speak in low voices is that vocal pitch is partly related to physical size. Taller men tend to have lower voices because they have longer vocal tracts and vocal folds, the main determinants of pitch.
Vocal anatomy is also thought to signal a man's level of testosterone, a hormone linked to physical aggressiveness and prowess.
Studies have shown that women favor men with low, masculine voices during periods in their menstrual cycle when they're likely to get pregnant, and also that they prefer men with lower voices for short-term sexual flings.
How the study was done
In the new study, 111 male university students took part in what they thought was a competition against another guy for a date with an attractive female student. The participants were asked to rate social and physical dominance of themselves and a competitor.
All the male participants faced the same competitor, whose voice was recorded but who was not actually present during the experiment.
To get a baseline reading of their voices, participants were first asked to read a passage aloud. They then had to respond to the competitor after listening to him give reasons why he thought other men respected or admired him.
Men who rated themselves as more physically dominant than the competitor used a lower vocal pitch when responding to him, whereas men who rated themselves as less physically dominant tended to raise it.
The costs of faking
Like whining in dogs, a man's raising of pitch to a physically dominant man is probably an unconscious way of showing deference, said study leader David Puts of the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
Men could fake it and lower their pitch to appear more dominant than they really are, but if someone calls their bluff in a real-world situation, the consequences could be severe.
"If you advertise dominance and can't back it up, the attacks may be worse than if you had avoided the fight to begin with," Puts told LiveScience.
An experiment with sparrows done in the 1980's provides a case in point. Male sparrows have black patches on their chests that advertise their status to other males. The more dominant and older a male sparrow is, the bigger and darker his patch is. Researchers painted dark patches on the chests of male sparrows that weren't very dominant before. The ruse worked for a while, but eventually the posers were challenged to fight.
"When they were, it was pretty bad for them because they couldn't back up the dominance that they had been claiming," Puts said.
Experiments in which wimpy female wasps were painted to mimic dominant wasps showed similar results: phonies got harassed more often and for longer periods when they got into fights.
Puts and his team think lower vocal pitch signals physical dominance more than it does social dominance, which in modern humans is typically achieved through skillful leadership and persuasion, not strength.
"Social dominance has to do with things like intelligence and social skills, which aren't necessarily related to body size or testosterone," Puts explained. "Ancestrally, if pitch was related to dominance, it was first related to physical dominance before anything else."
Source http://www.livescience.com/health/060731_pitch_dominance.html
__________________
|
Blackadder
|
Jeez, BG ... are you going into competition with Coolio for long-winded speeches that bores everyone, cos we don't wanna read it??? 
|
Babygael
|
Truth hurts eh?  Erm,did you whine? Or growl when you said that? Cos' if you whined and rolled over on your back, we girls will come and rub your tummy?
Just asking! 
|
Blackadder
|
I confess I didn't read it all cos I ain't all that interested!!!
|
Babygael
|
Why that's OK huni,its just a study in human behavior.Quite a lot of growling is going on over in the history thread come to think of it! Life is hard for the thin skinned! 
|
Blackadder
|
Okay, I read it ... and it's this kind of research that gives Science a bad name.
You'd be as well saying, "We did a survey of 100 people ...yadda, yadda, yadda!"
Anything that takes its results from "study samples" is seriously flawed because Statistics itself is not so much an inexact science, but a complete fraud. Results from a poll of 2390 people is just that. A poll of 2390 people. And 2390 people does not match 500,000 or however many.
I blame old Asimov, because he caught statisticians eyes with his Psychohistory pseudobabble! The forgot it was a work of fiction (very good fiction!) and have been applying it to the masses ever since!
And I'm sure First Speaker Stor Gendibal would agree with me ... if Gaea allowed it!!!
|
mairead
|
Interesting post, just the same.
|
Blackadder
|
Interesting for women, cos they want to believe this kind of crap! 
|
kathyv
|
| Blackadder wrote: | | Jeez, BG ... are you going into competition with Coolio for long-winded speeches that bores everyone, cos we don't wanna read it??? |
WHAT! I've been replaced? 
That was interesting for the behavior side of things.
|
Blackadder
|
Look on the other threads (like History), Kaffy. I did ... and now I have to say you're positively brief by comparison. And a lot better humoured too!
|
mairead
|
Humour??? I don't think friend Dave knows the word never mind be blessed by humour.
|
Blackadder
|
Don't get me started, Mairead ...
He doesn't come on here, cos he hasn't a snowball's chance in hell of surviving it. You, Kaffy, BG and Carol alone are more than enough to handle that old galoot!! I've been training you in that for months with all my cheery banter!
|
Babygael
|
Actually, I posted the above bearing coolio in mind! Thanks for the training tho' BA babes but I can do  very well!!
|
Blackadder
|
Now you can!!! Before you encountered me, you couldn't even say boo to a goose! Still ... you held your own against that arse!!! So it's all good!
|
Babygael
|
If that makes you feel better,please feel free!
|
mairead
|
Feel Free??
Really BG, I'm not sure if you should allow that privilege to Blackadder.
|
Babygael
|
Nae chance now that you put it that way,besides the male BlackAdders have high pitch,whiney voices!
|
Blackadder
|
Very bad guess. But you're welcome to find out. I'm starving the dogs just so they'll be ready for your arrival!
|
mairead
|
Lordie, but these poor dogs have been getting starved for months. Surely they must be dead by now.
|
Blackadder
|
Oh no ... they get enough to survive on! It keeps them lean, healthy ........ and mean!
The alpha male of the pack is Butch ... he's going to love you!!!
|
mairead
|
Of course he will love me. I have a great affinity with animals. It's people I worry about.
|
Blackadder
|
| Quote: | | Of course he will love me. I have a great affinity with animals. |
Okaaaaaay! Once Butch gets his paws on you, I guarantee you'll never leave him ... until he goes to crap in the woods with a sour stomach and diahorrea!!!
|
mairead
|
BA, You're a disgusting mongrel
|
Babygael
|
GROSS!!
"It's people I worry about." Couldn't agree with you more mairead!
|
Blackadder
|
| Quote: | | BA, You're a disgusting mongrel |
Hey ... it isn't me will be giving my dog a dose of the trots!!! Blame yourself!!!
|
mairead
|
Blame us? The innocents. I don't think so.
|
Blackadder
|
Mairead ... there is absolutely nothing innocent about you! And when I find out who has the photographs ....
|
mairead
|
heh heh heh heh
|
Blackadder
|
Laugh all you want ... my PIs are on the case. As well as researching Coolio ............ for future reference!
|
mairead
|
Keep up the good work, but you won't get the answer you so desperately seek.
|
Blackadder
|
On you or Coolio? Pleased to say the latter is becoming more apparent.
|
mairead
|
Och he's a lot easier to figure out than me.
|
Blackadder
|
That's true, You have so many layers we should call you the Onion!!!
|
mairead
|
well that would be the least of all the things you've called me. Didn't your dadda tell you that we women are a very complex species. Tch Tch
|
Blackadder
|
Oh yeah. He told me ... "Look at a light switch ... that's you that is! Then look at a laboratory computer that uses switches, buttons, levers and what-have-you ... that's the girl you're going to end up with!"
Which is why my two sons are b***ards and I'm happily still single!!!
|
mairead
|
OOOO, you are awful, you are.
|
Blackadder
|
No .... just very intelligent!!!
|
mairead
|
Erm, whoever told you that os a liar. A blatant liar, and you should not believe everything strange men tell you.
|
Blackadder
|
My dear nincompoop ... I have an IQ of 156 and have lectured students at three Universities in my specialist study. You live alone in a ramshackle hovel in the woods, luring children in with sweets. I think other posters will draw their own conclusions from that.
|
mairead
|
Ah yes, 'tis true that I have retired to the forest, but just to get away from prats like you. I find the woodland creatures so much more interesting.
|
Blackadder
|
I hope the ones that creep and crawl also find you interesting ... when you're asleep!!!
|
mairead
|
Ach a few wee creepy crawly things dinna bother me. They're only wee animals after all. I just pick them up and return them to their natural habitat.
|
Blackadder
|
Except for the ones that crawl into all your orifices and crevices and those you swallow as you sleep.
Apparently, you eat abour eight spiders a year as you sleep. In your case, living in a forest, you probably eat a damn sight more ...
I bet you have large spider paste on your toast!!
|
mairead
|
You really are a disgusting sad BA. It's adders I have on toast black, green or any colour, so watch out.
|
Blackadder
|
Fine .... I'm not really keen on snakes anyway! I'm more of a cat person!
|
mairead
|
You mean y0u have a dislike for your own breed?. My how strange you are.
|
Blackadder
|
How often do I have to tell you peasants!?? The family name comes from a water-course ... NOT a slithering reptile ... though I rather like the fear they instil in you!
|
mairead
|
And do you actually think we believe ANYTHING you tell us, Lord Snakey.
|
Blackadder
|
Personally, I don't give a rat's arse what you think. What's surprising is that any of you peasants actually CAN think ... occassionally!!!
|
mairead
|
When reading some of YOUR posts, I think any reader would notice that the rest of us are a step ahead of YOU in the thought processes.
|
Blackadder
|
That'll be the blind reader then???
|
mairead
|
Har de har har, har har.
|
Blackadder
|
Guess I nailed that too!!!
|
mairead
|
No, you just made me smile
|
Blackadder
|
Smile, eh? Having fun?? We'll soon put a stop to that!!!
|
|
|
