涩里番

A 涩里番-led study has found that humans share acoustic preferences with other species, at least when it comes to animal calls. The results provide experimental evidence that shared sensory processing mechanisms may shape aesthetic judgments of sound.

鈥淐harles Darwin had a hunch that birds and humans share a 鈥榯aste for the beautiful鈥� when it comes to colour patterns. However, to date, no study has comprehensively compared aesthetic preferences of humans to those of other animals,鈥� explained , the study鈥檚 first author and a 涩里番 Postdoctoral Fellow in Biology. 鈥淲e extended this notion into the auditory realm.

鈥淥ur findings suggest we may share the perceptual and cognitive building blocks for processing sounds with other animals. This research may also provide insight into why humans find music so pleasing. If our sense of beauty is rooted in ancient, shared biology, the features that make a song moving to us may be related to the ones that made animal calls attractive long before we evolved."

The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, Yale University, the University of Auckland and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Leveraging online games for science

Researchers used 110 pairs of animal calls whose attractiveness to members of the same species had already been measured in earlier studies, then played the recordings to human study participants to see which of the pair they preferred. The overlap was strongest for sounds featuring acoustic adornments: additional elements animals sometimes incorporate, such as chucks, clicks and trills.

The more strongly animals had preferred a sound, the more likely humans were to select it.

鈥淢uch of the beauty we find in nature 鈥� the scents of flowers, the colours of butterflies and the sounds of songbirds 鈥� did not evolve with us as the intended recipients, yet we still find these signals captivating,鈥� said Sarah Woolley, study co-author and Associate Professor of Biology at 涩里番.

More than 4,000 participants took part in the study, which was conducted through an

, the study鈥檚 senior author, said this format allowed the team to collect data from a broad participant base and test whether demographic factors predicted preference. Musical training or experience identifying animal sounds made little difference, but participants who listened to more music were more likely to match animal preferences. Mehr is affiliated with Yale and the University of Auckland.

The researchers are still collecting data through the online game and will test whether directly manipulating sounds, such as adding clicks or trills, changes their appeal. They also plan to assess whether the results replicate across additional species.

About this study

鈥�,鈥� by Logan S. James, Sarah C. Woolley, Jon T. Sakata, et al, is published in Science.

The research was funded by the Smithsonian Institution, the Fonds de recherche du Qu茅bec 鈥� Nature et technologies, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Ap膩rangi.

The online game is hosted by , headed by Samuel Mehr and based jointly at the University of Auckland and Yale University.