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Efficacy in deceptive vocal exaggeration of human body size.pdf (1.86 MB)

Efficacy in deceptive vocal exaggeration of human body size

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posted on 2023-06-10, 00:32 authored by Katarzyna Pisanski, David Reby
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 recalibrate their height assessments for vocalisers they correctly and concurrently identify as deceptive, particularly men judging men. Thus, while size exaggeration can fool listeners, benefiting the deceiver, its detection can reduce bias and mitigate costs for listeners, underscoring an unremitting arms-race between signallers and receivers in animal communication.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Nature Communications

ISSN

2041-1723

Publisher

Nature Research

Issue

a968

Volume

12

Event location

England

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2021-08-04

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2021-08-04

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2021-08-04

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