Shout of a champion: amplitude of the first harmonic frequency is associated with fighting success in Mixed Martial Arts fighters
Abstract
Honest advertising of individual's formidability is supposed to prevent potentially costly physical confrontations. It can be hypothesised that several vocal characteristics could convey information about potential formidability.
Previous research found association between acoustic correlates of lower pitch such as lower F0 of connected speech and higher fighting success in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters. It can be argued that shouting represents vocalisation type more ecologically relevant to de-escalate an already escalated conflict scenario and intimidate potential opponent.
Therefore, our study focused on acoustical correlates of intimidation shouts produced by amateur MMA fighters in relation to their fighting success. 43 amateur MMA contestants (mean age = 24.2) attending a 2016 Amateur European MMA Championships took part in our study. We used ratio of past wins to overall matches as a marker of their fighting success.
Three consecutive intimidating shouts were recorded under standardized conditions at championships site. Intensity, F0, harmonics frequencies (H1-H3) and amplitudes (A1-A3) were analysed using Praat.
We did not find any relationship between shouts intensity, F0, or H1-H3 and fighting success. On the other hand, amplitude of first harmonic (A1) was negatively correlated with fighting success.
Our results showed that F0 or H1-H3 are not related to fighting success in our sample of MMA fighters. However, we suggest that A1 may be used in intimidation shouts instead.
We provide evidence that certain vocal characteristics might be considered as markers of success in male competition.