Embedded Files
Ever wondered who has better hearing?
Yourself or your spouse?
Your sibling or yourself? Well...
A new international study examining hearing sensitivity across diverse global populations has found that women, on average, have more sensitive hearing than men—by approximately two decibels. Women had performed better at speech perception tests and processed auditory information better.
Environmental factors, such as altitude and surrounding soundscapes, play a significant role in how individuals perceive sound.
The team conducted hearing tests on 450 healthy individuals across 13 populations in Ecuador, England, Gabon, South Africa, and Uzbekistan. To cover possible geographical and cultural differences.
Otoacoustic emission tests were used to test hearing sensitivity, transient otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) testing specifically.
TEOAE's assess the ability of the ear to generate and transmit sounds in response to auditory stimuli (presented sounds).
Results showed women often presented a greater size of cochlear (hearing organ) response (amplitude). The difference was by 2dB. Which is significant as the dB differences to the human ear on an audiogram exist on a logarithmic scale (to the power of 100!)
It is being speculated:
- This could be due to structural differences in cochlear anatomy (size) above.
- Different exposure to hormones during development in the womb.
Identifying drivers behind natural hearing variation will improve our understanding of hearing loss and individual differences in noise tolerance,” researchers said.
Biological factors aside the environment emerged as the next most influential factor. Individuals living in densely forested regions exhibited the highest hearing sensitivity, while those residing at high altitudes tended to have the lowest.
References
Balaresque, P., Delmotte, S., Delehelle, F. et al. Sex and environment shape cochlear sensitivity in human populations worldwide. Sci Rep 15, 10475 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-92763-6
Google Sites
Report abuse