Do women prefer more complex music around ovulation?

PloS One
Benjamin D CharltonW Tecumseh Fitch

Abstract

The evolutionary origins of music are much debated. One theory holds that the ability to produce complex musical sounds might reflect qualities that are relevant in mate choice contexts and hence, that music is functionally analogous to the sexually-selected acoustic displays of some animals. If so, women may be expected to show heightened preferences for more complex music when they are most fertile. Here, we used computer-generated musical pieces and ovulation predictor kits to test this hypothesis. Our results indicate that women prefer more complex music in general; however, we found no evidence that their preference for more complex music increased around ovulation. Consequently, our findings are not consistent with the hypothesis that a heightened preference/bias in women for more complex music around ovulation could have played a role in the evolution of music. We go on to suggest future studies that could further investigate whether sexual selection played a role in the evolution of this universal aspect of human culture.

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Citations

Apr 25, 2014·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Benjamin D Charlton
May 23, 2014·Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience·Camilla N ClarkJason D Warren
Oct 24, 2017·Frontiers in Neuroscience·Piotr Podlipniak
Jan 29, 2019·Frontiers in Neuroscience·Daniel L BowlingW Tecumseh Fitch
Aug 28, 2020·The Behavioral and Brain Sciences·Samuel A MehrEdward H Hagen
Nov 16, 2021·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Juan David LeongómezS Craig Roberts

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Software Mentioned

GarageBand
SuperCollider
Python
SPSS

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