The Influence of Human Facial and Vocal Features on Social Perceptions of Attractiveness, Dominance, and Leadership Ability

Abstract

Research shows that human facial and vocal features influence social perceptions of attractiveness and dominance. In general, more feminine facial and vocal features are perceived as more attractive in women and more masculine facial and vocal features are perceived as more attractive in men. More masculine facial and vocal features are generally perceived as more dominant in both women and men. Given that attractiveness and dominance closely relate to inter- and intra-sexual selection, respectively, and that leaders can influence an individual’s fitness, humans likely possess evolved mechanisms for assessing leadership ability. Thus, in prior work, facial and vocal features have been related to perceptions of leadership ability. In this dissertation, I address three previously unanswered questions. First, how do vocal acoustics influence perceptions of leaders and voting preferences? Second, how do vocal acoustics influence perceptions of leaders in different social contexts? Third, how do different methods of stimuli presentation influence the results of studies on face and voice perception? Herein, I demonstrate that participants prefer to vote for lower pitched men’s voices, and that it is unclear precisely how women’s voice pitch influences voting preferences. I also show that the influence of voice pitch on perceptions of leaders depends on the social context. Third, I establish that several methods of stimuli presentation are equally valid to use in studies on face and voice perception. Overall, the studies in this dissertation demonstrate that facial and vocal features influence perceptions of attractiveness, dominance, and leadership ability in a potentially adaptive manner.