The Role of Evolved Perceptual Biases in Art and Design
The seminal ideas about the relationship of aesthetic appreciation and evolutionary theory emerged initially with the Darwinian construct of sexual selection that emphasized the importance of mate choice and physical attractiveness (Darwin 1885). Anthropo
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G.
COSS
Introd uction The seminal ideas about the relationship of aesthetic appreciation and evolutionary theory emerged initially with the Darwinian construct of sexual selection that emphasized the importance of mate choice and physical attractiveness (Darwin 1885). Anthropomorphic linkage of processes of human intelligence and those of other species (Romanes 1886), coupled with emphasis on the role of natural selection in adjusting human intelligence (Spencer 1888), set the stage for describing behavior in terms of evolutionary history. The idea that innate knowledge accumulated over successive generations and influenced current behavior pervaded nineteenthcentury tomes that characterized behavioral relics as atavistic (Nietzsche 1909), especially the fearful behavior of children (Hall 1897). Jung (1916, 1972) continued the development of these ideas with his construct of the archetype as a species-typical pattern of thought that might account for cross-cultural similarities in mythology and graphical symbolism. Katesa Schlosser (1952) was among the first art historians to link the expressive components of drawings and sculpture of artists from preliterate societies with the ethological construct of "sign stimuli;' or visual releasers of innate behavior. Schlosser noticed similarities in conspicuous animal signals and the way artists exaggerate human body features, such as the eyes, projecting breasts, hips, and legs. Many artists tended to simplify these specific features into their essential, recognizable form. The portrayal of vigorous activity like running, for example, was characterized by elongation of the limbs in dynamic postures. More recent applications of evolutionary theory to aesthetics have emphasized the adaptive value of art as social communication in which artistic devices are used to increase the attractiveness of the body through ornamentation (Dissanayake 1974) and rituals are used to enhance group cohesiveness (Dissanayake 1979, 1992). Similar functional views from an ethological perspective have been expressed by Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1989). Darwinian or evolutionary psychologists have adopted a more specific epistemology that emphasizes the costs and benefits of behavioral adaptations in promoting inclusive fitness as heuristic guides for discovering E. Voland et al. (eds.), Evolutionary Aesthetics © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003
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innate psychological mechanisms (Cosmides and Tooby 1987; Tooby and De Yore 1987). A topic of major interest to evolutionary psychologists is human mate choice and physical attractiveness. This chapter reflects my initial theoretical conception of studying the role of ecologically important visual shapes and textures that might explain cross-cultural similarities of certain aesthetic elements in art and design. My empirical approach (Coss 1965, 1968) was triggered by an epiphany of the heuristic value of envisioning various historical circumstances in which human ancestors had to deal with specific dangerous situations. Failure to beh
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