MAKING AGE ASSESSMENTS BASED ON VOICE: THE IMPACT OF THE REPRODUCTIVE VIABILITY OF THE SPEAKER

This study examined the ability to make age estimates based upon hearing voice samples of speakers whose ages vary across the lifespan while considering the raters’ own age and sex. It was hypothesized that voices are a strong index of reproductive viability and therefore, members of both sexes would be most accurate in assessing age of those around puberty and females approaching menopause. Voice samples were obtained from 101 individuals of both sexes, ranging in age from 2 to 67 years and an additional 97 independent raters of different ages were asked to estimate the exact age of the speakers from voice recordings. Results showed that accuracy of voice assessment tended to decrease as the speakers’ ages increased, with assessments of children and adolescents being the most accurate. Overall, raters tended to underestimate the age of speakers as the speaker age increased regardless of the raters’ own age. Whereas accuracy in ratings decreased when male speakers reached age 46-55, accuracy remained high for female speakers in their menopausal years, suggesting that both sexes are sensitive to vocal changes during this developmental period. These findings illustrate that the human voice may be used as a salient cue for assessing reproductive viability.