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Updated: Mar 21, 2026
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Determining Ultrasonic Vocalization Preferences in Mice using a Two-choice Playback Test
Published on: September 3, 2015
12.0K
Humans share acoustic preferences with other animals
Logan S James1,2,3,4, Sarah C Woolley1,2, Jon T Sakata1,2
1Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|March 19, 2026
Summary
Humans share surprising acoustic preferences with animals, aligning with Darwin's ideas on beauty. Our study reveals humans and animals agree on certain sounds, especially lower-frequency ones, impacting our aesthetic sense.
Area of Science:
- Comparative psychology
- Bioacoustics
- Evolutionary biology
Background:
- Animals produce courtship sounds, with receiver preferences varying.
- Darwin hypothesized shared aesthetic tastes between humans and animals.
- Acoustic preferences may be shaped by shared ancestry and convergent evolution.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate shared acoustic preferences between humans and animals.
- To determine if human preferences correlate with those of other species.
- To explore the influence of human music experience on acoustic preferences.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of human and animal acoustic preferences.
- Correlation studies on preference strength across species.
- Reaction time measurements for human responses to sounds.
Main Results:
- Humans exhibit shared acoustic preferences with a diverse range of animals.
- The strength of human preferences correlates with those observed in other species.
- Humans responded faster to sounds that aligned with animal preferences, particularly adorned, ancestral, and lower-frequency sounds.
- Human music listening experience was linked to specific acoustic preferences.
Conclusions:
- Acoustic preferences are conserved across species, supporting evolutionary theories.
- Biases in auditory processing likely sculpt aesthetic preferences in nature.
- Darwin's conjecture regarding shared aesthetic sensibilities between humans and animals is supported by empirical evidence.
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