Efficacy in deceptive vocal exaggeration of human body size.

ABSTRACT: How can deceptive communication signals exist in an evolutionarily stable signalling system? To resolve this age-old honest signalling paradox, researchers must first establish whether deception benefits deceivers. However, while vocal exaggeration is widespread in the animal kingdom and assumably adaptive, its effectiveness in biasing listeners has not been established. Here, we show that human listeners can detect deceptive vocal signals produced by vocalisers who volitionally shift their voice frequencies to exaggerate or attenuate their perceived size. Listeners can also judge the relative heights of cheaters, whose deceptive signals retain reliable acoustic cues to interindividual height. Importantly, although vocal deception biases listeners' absolute height judgments, listeners reca

SUBMITTER: Pisanski K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7881139 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature