A Taste for the Beautiful: The Evolution of Attraction
- ISBN-10
- 1400889154
- ISBN-13
- 9781400889150
- Category
- Science
- Pages
- 224
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2018-01-16
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- Author
- Michael J. Ryan
Description
From one of the world's leading authorities on animal behavior, the astonishing story of how the female brain drives the evolution of beauty in animals and humans 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. In A Taste for the Beautiful, Michael Ryan, one of the world’s leading authorities on animal behavior, tells the remarkable story of how he and other scientists have taken up where Darwin left off and transformed our understanding of sexual selection, shedding new light on human behavior in the process. Drawing on cutting-edge work in neuroscience and evolutionary biology, as well as his own important studies of the tiny Túngara 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. Vividly written and filled with fascinating stories, A Taste for the Beautiful will change how you think about beauty and attraction.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2019-06-11
- 224 pages
- Paperback
- Princeton University Press
Similar books
-
A Taste for the Beautiful: The Evolution of Attraction
By Michael J. Ryan' Turns out, beauty is in the brain. The brain decides what strikes us as beautiful. This book raises and answers an astonishing set of questions: What is the perception called beauty? How did our brains acquire it?
-
The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World - and Us
By Richard O. PrumMuller, M. N., S. M. Kahlenberg, and R. W. Wrangham. 2009. “Male Aggression Against Females and Sexual Coercion in Chimpanzees.” In Sexual Coercion in Primates and Humans: An Evolutionary Perspective on Male Aggression Against Females, ...
-
A Taste for Love
By Jennifer YenBoth high school senior Liza Yang and her mother share a love and talent for baking but disagree on the subject of dating, especially when Mrs. Yang turns her annual baking contest into a matchmaking scheme.
-
A Taste of Honey
By Kai Ashante WilsonFind out why Wired named it one of the 20 Best Books of the Decade! Long after the Towers left the world but before the dragons came to Daluça, the emperor brought his delegation of gods and diplomats to Olorum.
-
A Taste of Blood Wine
By Freda Warrington1918. A First World War battlefield becomes the cosmic battleground for two vampires, as Karl von Wultendorf struggles to free himself from his domineering maker, Kristian. 1923.
-
The Taste of Salt
By Martha SouthgateAward-winning novelist Martha Southgate (who, in the words of Julia Glass, “can write fat and hot, then lush and tender, then just plain truthful and burning with heart”) now tells the story of a family pushed to its limits by addiction ...
-
The Taste of Words: An Introduction to Urdu Poetry
By Raza Mir3. justice to 'Bazeecha-eatfaal'. Begum Akhtar sings 'Sab kahaan kuchh' in. I would recommend Jagjit Singh's rendition of 'Aah ko chahiye'. Mohammad Rafi does a great job of rendering 'Baske dushwaar' in his trademark clean style, ...
-
A Taste for Red
By Lewis HarrisA sixth-grade Goth girl who thinks she’s a vampire encounters her greatest nemesis when she enrolls at Sunny Hill Middle School in this hilarious and entirely original take on the vampire genre for middle graders.
-
Taste: The Infographic Book of Food
By Laura RoweThis is the age of the infographic, where statistics, facts and knowledge are made easily available and understandable.
-
Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon: A Cookbook
By Claudia Roden10 st av I no 5 2 pounds unwaxed oranges 2 cups sugar Wash the oranges and cut them in thin slices, removing any pips. Sprinkle the bottom of a large heavy-bottomed pan with a little of the sugar. Arrange some ofthe orange slices on top ...