Individual differences in adult male voices emerge long before puberty

University of Sussex research reveals individual differences in adult male voices emerge long before puberty. New research from University of Sussex psychologists shows that voice pitch in males is determined long before a surge of sex hormones at puberty lengthens their vocal folds. In fact, the researchers found that individual differences in voice pitch that are known to play an important role in men's social and reproductive success are largely determined by age seven. Published in the Royal Society journal Open Science , the findings suggest that the attribution of certain traits to men who have relatively low-pitched voices (such as dominance and masculinity) may begin at a much younger age than previously thought. In order to examine vocal changes in individual subjects, the researchers utilised footage from the documentary series Seven Up and analysed the voices of the 10 men who took part in the programme, and who were recorded every seven years from 1964 to 2012 over a span of 50 years of their lives. The study found that while vocal pitch does drop dramatically in males between the ages of seven and 21 (i.e. 'voice breaking'), most likely due to a dramatic increase in circulating levels of testosterone, the men's vocal pitch at age seven still strongly predicted their pitch at every subsequent adult age.