Research shows women have sharper hearing than men, with gender and environmental factors having a significant impact

The researchers found that gender was the primary factor explaining differences in hearing sensitivity, with women having significantly sharper hearing than men.

Hearing problems are on the rise worldwide. While it's well known that hearing sensitivity decreases with age, less research has been conducted on other biological and environmental factors that influence hearing, such as gender, left-right ear differences, language, ethnicity, and local environment.

The research team, led by Dr. Patricia Barasque of the Center for Biodiversity and Environment Research (CRBE) in Toulouse, France, and including Professor Tully King of the University of Bath in the UK, conducted hearing tests on 450 people from 13 different populations around the world, including Ecuador, the UK, Gabon, South Africa, and Uzbekistan.

These populations were chosen to encompass a wide range of ecological and cultural contexts, including rural and non-European groups that have been less studied in previous studies.

The researchers investigated the sensitivity of the cochlea in the human ear by measuring so-called transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) to see how the cochlea transmits signals to the brain at different sound amplitudes and frequencies.

It's widely known that hearing is generally better in the right ear than the left, and that hearing generally declines with age. However, the researchers were surprised by the effects of gender and environmental factors.

Their findings, published in Scientific Reports, showed that hearing amplitude was more affected by gender than by age. Across all the people studied, women had an average hearing sensitivity of two decibels higher than men.

The second most influential factor is the environment, which not only affects how people react to volume but also the frequency range they can perceive.

People living in forested areas have the highest hearing sensitivity, while those living at high altitudes have the lowest hearing sensitivity.

They found that hearing differences between different populations are largely due to a combination of factors such as population, environment and language, but it is not yet clear whether this is due to the overall impact of the human body on the environment or due to long-term adaptation to different soundscapes, noise levels or exposure to pollution.

The researchers suggest that the heightened hearing sensitivity of forest dwellers may be due to their adaptation to a soundscape rich with non-human sounds, where vigilance is crucial for survival, or to their lower exposure to pollution.

People living at high altitudes may have lower hearing sensitivity for a variety of reasons, including the impact of low air pressure on measurement results, the possible obstruction of sound propagation in high-altitude environments, or the human body's physiological adaptation to low oxygen levels.

The research team also found differences between urban and rural populations: those living in cities showed increased sensitivity to high-frequency sounds, possibly because they filter out low-frequency traffic noise.

Professor Turie King, Director of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, who collected the samples from the UK participants while at the University of Leicester and co-authored the study, said: "We know that hearing generally declines with age and that prolonged exposure to loud noise and chemicals such as tobacco smoke can damage hearing.

"We want to examine in more detail what factors shape our hearing and the diversity of hearing sensitivity, and understand how our hearing adapts to our local environment.

"We were surprised to find that across all the populations we measured, women had hearing that was two decibels more acute than men, and this was the main reason for the differences in hearing between individuals. This could be due to different hormones that men and women are exposed to during development in the womb, or subtle differences in the anatomy of the cochlea between men and women.

"In addition to having greater hearing sensitivity, women also performed better on other hearing tests and speech perception, suggesting their brains are better at processing information. We don't fully understand why this is, but given the adverse effects of noise on overall health, such as reduced sleep quality and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, having more acute hearing in noisy environments isn't always a good thing."

Dr. Patricia Baraske said: "Our findings challenge existing assumptions and highlight the importance of considering both biological and environmental factors when studying hearing. Identifying the drivers behind natural hearing differences will help us better understand hearing loss and individual differences in noise tolerance."

Professor King said: "We know that humans are still evolving, so the next question is whether our hearing is universally adaptable to different environments, or whether there is an element of genetic adaptation involved."

More information: Patricia Balaresque et al, Sex and environment shape cochlear sensitivity in human populations worldwide, Scientific Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-92763-6

Information source: medicalxpress

Article reprinted from: 21dB Acoustics