Humans share acoustic preferences with other animals

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: James, Logan S.; Woolley, Sarah C.; Sakata, Jon T.; Hilton, Courtney B.; Ryan, Michael J.; Mehr, Samuel A.
• 署名单位: McGill University; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; Yale University; University of Melbourne; University of Auckland; Universite de Montreal
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.aea1202
• 发表日期: 2026-03-19
• 页码: 1246-1249
• 关键词: female mate choice; sexual selection; RECEIVER BIASES; song; EVOLUTION; QUALITY; COMMUNICATION; CANARIES; sounds; signal

摘要

Many animals produce courtship sounds, and receivers prefer some sounds over others. Shared ancestry and convergent evolution may generate similarities in preference across species and underlie Darwin's conjecture that some animals have nearly the same taste for the beautiful as we have. In this study, we show that humans share acoustic preferences with a range of animals, that the strength of human preferences correlates with that in other animals, and that humans respond faster when in agreement with animals. Furthermore, we found greatest agreement in preference for adorned, ancestral, and lower-frequency sounds. Humans' music listening experience was associated with preferences. These results are consistent with theories arguing that biases in processing sculpt acoustic preferences, and they confirm Darwin's century-old hunch about the conservation of aesthetics in nature.