Humans and Animals Show Similar Preferences for Certain Sounds, Research Finds
By Science Correspondent
A study led by researchers at McGill University has found that humans may favour the same types of sounds as other animal species, particularly when it comes to animal vocalisations.
The findings offer new evidence that similar sensory processes across species could influence how we perceive sound and beauty.
“Charles Darwin once proposed that birds and humans might share an appreciation for visual beauty, such as colour patterns. Until now, however, there has been little direct comparison of aesthetic preferences between humans and other animals,” said Logan James, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral fellow in biology at McGill. “We wanted to explore whether this idea also applies to what we hear.”
According to James, the results indicate that humans and other animals could share underlying perceptual and cognitive mechanisms for processing sound.
This connection may also help explain why music resonates so strongly with people.
If our sense of what sounds “beautiful” is grounded in deep evolutionary biology, then elements that make music appealing today may echo traits that once made animal calls attractive.
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The research was carried out in partnership with scientists from the University of Texas at Austin, Yale University, the University of Auckland and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Using Online Games to Gather Data
To conduct the study, researchers selected 110 pairs of animal calls that had previously been evaluated for attractiveness by members of the same species. Human participants were then asked to listen to these recordings and choose which sound they preferred.
The strongest overlap between human and animal choices occurred with calls that included added acoustic features—such as clicks, trills or other embellishments. In general, the more strongly animals favoured a particular sound, the more likely human participants were to prefer it as well.
“Many of the things we find beautiful in nature—like the fragrance of flowers, the vivid colours of butterflies, or birdsong—did not evolve specifically for humans, yet they still capture our attention,” said Sarah Woolley, a co-author of the study and associate professor of biology at McGill.
More than 4,000 people participated in the research through an interactive online game, allowing scientists to collect a large and diverse dataset.
Samuel Mehr, the study’s senior author, explained that this approach made it possible to examine whether factors such as background or experience influenced preferences.
While musical training and familiarity with animal sounds had little effect, individuals who reported listening to more music were slightly more aligned with the animals’ preferences. Mehr is affiliated with both Yale and the University of Auckland.
Next Steps for the Research
The team continues to gather responses through the online platform and plans to experiment further by modifying sounds—for example, by adding trills or clicks—to observe how these changes affect perceived appeal. Future work will also explore whether similar patterns hold across a wider range of species.
About this study
“Humans share acoustic preferences with other animals,” by Logan S. James, Sarah C. Woolley, Jon T. Sakata, et al, is published in Science.
The research was funded by the Smithsonian Institution, the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi.
The online game is hosted by The Music Lab, headed by Samuel Mehr and based jointly at the University of Auckland and Yale University.
