A Taste For The Beautiful: The Evolution Of Attraction
by Michael J. Ryan /
2018 / English / PDF
221.5 MB Download
Darwin developed the theory of sexual selection to explain why the
animal world abounds in stunning beauty, from the brilliant colors
of butterflies and fishes to the songs of birds and frogs. He
argued that animals have "a taste for the beautiful" that drives
their potential mates to evolve features that make them more
sexually attractive and reproductively successful. But if Darwin
explained why sexual beauty evolved in animals, he struggled to
understand how. Drawing on cutting-edge work in neuroscience and
evolutionary biology, as well as his own important studies of the
tiny T�ngara frog deep in the jungles of Panama, Ryan explores the
key questions: Why do animals perceive certain traits as beautiful
and others not? Do animals have an inherent sexual aesthetic and,
if so, where is it rooted? Ryan argues that the answers to these
questions lie in the brain?particularly of females, who act as
biological puppeteers, spurring the development of beautiful traits
in males. This theory of how sexual beauty evolves explains its
astonishing diversity and provides new insights about the degree to
which our own perception of beauty resembles that of other animals.
Darwin developed the theory of sexual selection to explain why the
animal world abounds in stunning beauty, from the brilliant colors
of butterflies and fishes to the songs of birds and frogs. He
argued that animals have "a taste for the beautiful" that drives
their potential mates to evolve features that make them more
sexually attractive and reproductively successful. But if Darwin
explained why sexual beauty evolved in animals, he struggled to
understand how. Drawing on cutting-edge work in neuroscience and
evolutionary biology, as well as his own important studies of the
tiny T�ngara frog deep in the jungles of Panama, Ryan explores the
key questions: Why do animals perceive certain traits as beautiful
and others not? Do animals have an inherent sexual aesthetic and,
if so, where is it rooted? Ryan argues that the answers to these
questions lie in the brain?particularly of females, who act as
biological puppeteers, spurring the development of beautiful traits
in males. This theory of how sexual beauty evolves explains its
astonishing diversity and provides new insights about the degree to
which our own perception of beauty resembles that of other animals.
