Discussion A lot of research in evolutionary and social psychology has focused on displays of physical and social dominance in general (Chen Zeng, Cheng & Henrich, 2022) and on vocal correlates of dominance in particular, such as low voice pitch and formant frequencies (Aung & Puts, 2020). However, much less is known about the vocal signals exchanged once a confrontation has already escalated: how can opponents evaluate each other’s condition and decide whether to withdraw from a fight?