Why Do Men Have An Adam's Apple? An Evolutionary Biologist Explains

An evolutionary biologist explains that the Adam’s apple is most likely linked to how male voices change during puberty, rather than to pitch alone. Longer, thicker vocal folds vibrate more slowly, contributing to the roughly octave drop in boys’ voice pitch during adolescence, a form of sexual selection tied to mate competition and dominance cues. A 2016 Proceedings of the Royal Society B study reported that humans show more pitch dimorphism than any other ape, with deeper effects in primates that face more competitive mating systems. However, some researchers argue that formants—resonant frequencies shaped by throat and mouth anatomy—predict body size more reliably than pitch. A 2022 Frontiers in Psychology review supports formants as the better indicator, suggesting the Adam’s apple is a side effect of longer vocal tract structures.