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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2025.06.26.661759

Humans share acoustic preferences with other animals

James, L. S.·Woolley, S. C.·Sakata, J. T.·Hilton, C. B.·Ryan, M. J.·Mehr, S. A.
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Abstract

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

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James, L. S., Woolley, S. C., Sakata, J. T., Hilton, C. B., Ryan, M. J., Mehr, S. A.. 2025-06-27. Humans share acoustic preferences with other animals. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.26.661759

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