Animal Preferences: Implications of Sexual Selection Research for Empirical Aesthetics

Abstract

The theory of sexual selection posits that sexual species make use of sensory preferences for physical traits and behavior displayed by potential sexual partners to inform mate choices. This suggests that the ability to compute hedonic liking for perceptual stimuli is widespread across biological taxa, have a long evolutionary history, and that the neurobiological processes involved in assigning liking to sensory objects may be conserved over this history. It remains unclear, though, to what degree specialized forms of hedonic evaluations found in humans, including aesthetic appreciation, share common computational principles with appraisals of sexual traits in other animals. Unfortunately, comparative work is very rare, and researchers in the fields of sexual selection and empirical aesthetics appear largely ignorant about each other’s work. In this paper I review recent important findings from sexual selection research in animals that directly have bearing on current discussions in empirical aesthetics about how to understanding the nature and uniqueness of human aesthetic appreciation. I argue that many of the outstanding issues in empirical aesthetics can only be resolved by comparing sensory evaluation in humans with other forms of sensory evaluation in other species.

The nature of beauty: behavior, cognition, and neurobiology

“…The neuroimaging literature described above suggests that evaluating beauty involves the same neurobiological system, and the generation of the same kind of pleasure, as other hedonic evaluations (liking, pleasing, appealing, and so on) 9,48,49,85 . Pleasure is believed to have evolved as a mechanism that helps motivate organisms to seek out environmental features and resources that are necessary to their survival, and therefore arose early along the vertebrate lineage 86,87 .…”

“…The neuroimaging literature described above suggests that evaluating beauty involves the same neurobiological system, and the generation of the same kind of pleasure, as other hedonic evaluations (liking, pleasing, appealing, and so on). 9,48,49,85 Pleasure is believed to have evolved as a mechanism that helps motivate organisms to seek out environmental features and resources that are necessary to their survival, and therefore arose early along the vertebrate lineage. 86,87 Neurobiological processes associated with the generation of pleasure are highly conserved across species, raising the possibility that human beauty responses are not really unique, and that they rely on neural mechanisms also engaged by other pleasure experiences.…”

“…At the same time, advances in neuroimaging methods have allowed neuroscientists to search for the biological basis of beauty appreciation 2–6 . Finally, growing evidence for complex perceptual, cognitive, and affective mechanisms involved in animal mate choice has raised questions about the role beauty plays in driving sexual selection 7–9 . These and other factors have allowed and encouraged scientific research into the psychological and biological factors that explain why some objects are experienced as beautiful, while others are not, and how beauty affects choices, psychological well‐being, and social interactions.…”

The Nature of Beauty: behavior, cognition, and neurobiology

“…The neuroimaging literature described above suggests that we experience an object as beautiful when beauty evaluations tap into pleasure mechanisms employed by diverse hedonic evaluations. 9,48,49,85 Pleasure is believed to have evolved as a mechanism that helps motivate organisms to seek out environmental features and resources that are necessary to their survival, and therefore evolved early along the vertebrate lineage. 86,87 Neurobiological processes associated with the generation of pleasure are highly conserved across species, raising the possibility that human beauty responses are not really unique, that they employ neural mechanisms also engaged by other pleasure experiences.…”

“…[2][3][4][5][6] Finally, growing evidence for complex perceptual, cognitive, and affective mechanisms involved in animal mate choice has raised questions about the role beauty plays in driving sexual selection. [7][8][9] These and other factors have allowed and encouraged scientific research into the psychological and biological factors determining why some objects are experienced as beautiful, while others are not, and how beauty affects choices, psychological wellbeing, and social interactions.…”