Attraction and Creativity: Will an Interest in Music Be a Fitness Indicator for Men - Essay Example

? Attraction and Creativity: Will an Interest in Music Be a Fitness Indicator for Men Attraction and Creativity: Will an Interest in Music Be a Fitness Indicator for Men Introduction Creativity has become one of the key determinants of attraction in the different sexes (Gabrielsson, 2009, p. 20). The theory of sexual selection states that, women should find men who display musical characteristics more attractively (Gabrielsson, 2009, p. 34). Creativity is the condition where, a person associates himself with a specific activity. In the study conducted, males who displayed a liking in music, attracted females at a higher degree than those who displayed a liking in other activities, such as video games. In the same case, females whose main hobby was music, also attracted the male gender the most. These findings concur with those from previous researches, which show that musicians are extremely attractive (Becknell et al., 2008). With sexual selection, which is the ability to pass on one’s genes to the coming generation, there has been a great difference between males and females. Females are seen to emphasize greatly on the resources that the male in question can access. Males however, have a very different view, emphasizing on creativity, which is an indicator of productivity. Therefore, creativity, which is in this case an interest in music, is seen as a valuable resource (Cobb & Boettcher, 2007). Deniz (2010) argues that, in most cases, females look for this creativity aspect in their potential male partners. Often, different psychologists, perceive musicians as having an enormous brain, being extraordinarily conscious, or having a learning culture (Cobb & Boettcher, 2007). Others have associated it with the Darwinian theory of natural survival. Thus, music is centered on competition survival. This therefore, has made researchers to search desperately, for the contribution of music to survival problems in the ancient environment. This is vague, because no one has ever proposed any survival benefits to the individuals producing music (Cohen, 2002). A rock guitarist in the 60s, Jimi Hendrix, died at the age of 27 in 1970. This musician earned many favors from the female gender, due to his music career. He maintained long-term relationships with two women and fathered three children (Deniz, 2010). These however, were the ones that people legally acknowledged. Rumors circulated that he had extra marital affairs, because of his sexual relationships with groupies. His genes for musical talent, extensively doubled in a single generation, because he attracted very many opposite sex admirers (Fernald, 2008). As Gabrielsson (2009) points out, music has a sexual origin. This is because of its aesthetic and emotional power. One cannot put a stop to music, because of other competing musicians around (Gabrielsson, 2009). He considered music as one of the best traits to be considered when selecting a mate. Fitness is the survival merits or its reproductive advantages, which outweigh its biological concepts. Music and any other traits have costs, because it requires a lot of energy in producing it (Cohen, 2002). This is because it requires a lot of thinking to come up with the lines, tiresome dancing rehearsals to perfect that final move, persistent vocal practice to emit the best sound, and a lot of money to make it available in the market. Music is universal in every culture. According to Graziano (2009), almost everyone can learn a melody or a certain dance move. It seems to involve an extremely specialized memory capacity, such that every human being can memorize a melody of a certain song. Human music seems to have convergent evolution due to its resemblance with the acoustic signals of other species like the birds. It brings about strong emotions, thus indicating that it is an adaptation for reception (Graziano, 2009). The psychological and all the cognitive processes that generate music are genetic, thus its presence in almost every human being today. Hanna-Pladdy & MacKay (2011) argue that music is normally a courtship display, usually selected sexually. However, it does not have to feel very sexy to its users. It often grows and displays its processor as a mature person. Psychologically, it starts at the right stage and in the best available circumstances (Green & Groff, 2003). As a result, the processor is not aware of the sudden inspiration and the courage of playing a certain musical instrument in a congregation of people. The production of music seems to decline after courtship. Therefore, male musicians avoid sexual contact before an important concert, because they need energy for a nice performance. Mast & McAndrew (2011) argue that music creativity, greatly improves after puberty, reaches its peak during young adulthood and courtship, and goes down with age due to parental demands. The traits that are most important and informative, are those that are highly susceptible to disruption by several factors. These species, especially males, use this trait to display their fitness (Hanna-Pladdy & MacKay, 2011). Methods and Procedures Male and female subjects were encouraged to view videotapes showing opposite gender peers. Potential dates described their professional situations, and all their hobbies including their tastes and preferences. Some indicated their enjoyment for music in their hobbies while others did not. Other forms of leisure included sporting, literature, videogames and movies. Immediately after exposure to these tapes, subjects rated the characteristics of individuals in the tapes. They also gave an extreme evaluation of a person’s desirability as a date, and the extent of attraction to the date. This subject responded first to the opposite gender, who gave all the preferences except the love for music (Johnson et al., 1995). This first person served as a control group. Secondly, subjects rated individuals who had a great preference for music. In a control situation, he or she never stated the love for music, but stated any of the four other preferences. In all other experiments however, music preference was included. The given preferences were classical, country and western, soft rock and heavy metal genres of music. The design here, was in a bid to analyze the covariance with some desired preference of opposite gender, and the subject gender, acting as independent variables. Afterwards, subjects recorded their preferences. Using this information, they made rearrangements to determine the level to which date appeal is influenced by the preference for music. All the subjects were undergraduate students at a local western university. They were 239 in total, which included 120 males and 119 females. Each subject was accorded course credit for their participation in this study. Procedure In each gender, subjects were selected randomly and assigned to the five different preferences. The subjects were then tested in groups of three to ten individuals of the same gender. Data from approximately four or more sessions was combined in each of the experiments. An experimenter in this case, who was a female, greeted them as they entered the laboratory. The subjects were eventually led to a small room with a television set (Kemper & Danhauer, 2005). They then sat down and were exposed to a previous audio tape recording. The message on the audiotape revealed that the subjects would be exposed to two videotapes. These two tapes would reveal their potential dates. They would in addition, be provided with a booklet, containing a scale that they would use to rate these potential dates. They were given strict instructions to wait for the conclusion of each video tape, before embarking on rating these individuals (Lemonick & Dorfman, 2000). In a given period, the videotape containing the covariate tape was played. The experiments waited for the subjects to rate this potential dates. Later, the experimental tape was played and the subjects were allowed to rate it. Afterwards, the subjects took part in a project that allowed them to enjoy the music presented in the videotapes. In addition, they were also allowed to enjoy all the other four preferences (Mast & McAndrew, 2011). At the end of this questionnaire, all their preferences were evaluated. The subjects were greatly appreciated after completing these questionnaires. They were asked if they had any relationship no matter how minor, with the potential dates. Six of the subjects, acknowledged knowing one of the actors and their results were immediately discarded with no inspection. Later on, the subjects were briefed about the reason for the research in a regular class session. Their responses were also read to them (Miranda & Claes, 2004). Experimental stimuli The selected actors were to represent typical peers, as not being too beautiful or extremely attractive. Their attire was informal and uniform, and their revelations were to reflect their intelligence, ambitions and achievements. The actors tried as much as possible, to maintain an eye contact with the respondents at all time. Image editing was exercised. This ensured that insertion of preferred preferences in the experimental tapes was not detected. This was achieved through editing from the footage of the actors, taken simultaneously by two cameras (Schmitt, 2003). The scripts were in addition, styled after the commercial dating videos. After self-introduction, the potential date gave a brief history of their educational background, followed by their leisure preferences. In the script, the covariate introduced him or herself, as coming from Chicago, in a dire need to major in advertising, being a sophomore and with an increased hope of an enormous career in this field of advertising. He or she pointed out that he enjoyed exercising, watching sports, socializing with people and travelling. They expressed a fondness of people who are creative, honest, exciting and sensitive. They hoped for a date that was encouraging, funny and understanding, but disliked the argumentative kind. All the favorite bars in town were also mentioned (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003). They concluded their dates with a positive attitude towards life and ability to make friends. In all the control conditions, the experiments had no musical preference. This preference however, was inserted in the remaining experiment. In the control condition, the experiments lasted for three minutes, while the other experiments lasted for 3.5 minutes. A pretest was carried out to ensure that the preferences in question, were not ambiguous. A total of eight males and seven females were asked to identify preferences, which they preferred in potential dates, which came to mind spontaneously (Richerson, 2000). The five frequently mentioned preferences were music, sports, movies, literature and video games. These were included in the final experiment. These 15 pre-testers, were not included in the final experiment. Subjects ranked both the covariate and the experimental dates on a 34 unipolar scale. LL scales were ranged from zero to ten. Scales from one to thirty, requested the evaluation of the characteristics and traits (Schwartz, 2004). Results In all these experiments, all the men saw the same woman, while all the women saw the same man. The only difference that emerged, was the preference of the confederate in question. In this experiment, the college men found college women who enjoyed music, as very attractive. The actor however, did not express his or her participation in playing any musical instrument. In this experiment, women were greatly attracted to men who showed an interest in music more than those who had other preferences (Schwartz, 2004). In addition, the actors never claimed to write a book, make movies or play football. The exception emerged in the video games, where the actors were involved in playing the video games. All the subjects were least attracted to subjects who played video games than all the other preferences. Ladies classified men who enjoyed music as bold, intelligent, interesting, sociable and focused. The men, who were so into video games, were classified as unsociable, insecure, weak, naive and boring. In real sense, college women often fall for college men who associate with heavy metal rock. Classical music and soft rock are the poorest choices for men in dire need of gaining appeal in these college women. Country music reduces appeal in both genders (Richerson, 2000). Conclusion Biologists indicate that some of the inherited traits are indicators of reproductive important traits such as good health, social status, fertility and genetic quality. Music is one of the sexually selected traits, which can be passed on to the next generation. Ladies are for one reason or another attracted to musicians, on the basis of their level of social status. This is because women, search for their potential mates, based on their potential in future. Men, who love music, often have a guaranteed better future, due to their stable income and social status in the society (Schwartz, 2004). One of the explanations for this, is that people especially ladies, tend to find more attractive things that are produced by people with high qualities, such as energy, endurance, creativity, and the ability to learn in difficult conditions. Music being an artwork reveals the artist’s virtuosity. Our perception to judge fitness as an indicator, is one of the social rationality that we perceive (Richerson, 2000). In addition, sexual selection often produces sex difference. Therefore, a sexual evolution in artwork, including music, does not need an extremely higher male ability of production in art or a higher female ability of aesthetic judgment. Therefore, if art is in a position to evolve through sexual selection, to assist in courtship function, we are not in a position to be consciously aware of the function in question. Therefore, a musician need not know the sexual selection he underwent to attract a large number of members of the opposite sex during his concerts. The appropriate biological function in support of this art, should not be confused with the individual’s motivation in the production of the music. There is no single part of the nervous system, which is required to keep track of the notion that, beautiful music often leads to reproduction (Richerson, 2000). In short, a number of predictions have been made, to support the hypothesis that a behavior trait, which is music production in this case, can evolve through sexual selection. One of the predictions is the phenotypic variance. The trait in question, should vary between individuals in the species. Without variance, then the trait cannot be used as an indicator in choosing a mate. Secondly, the trait in question, ought either to be perceivable by the opposite sex consciously or unconsciously, to influence mate choice. These qualities often lead to the visible attractiveness of the person in question (Richerson, 2000). In addition, the cost of production of the trait, should be significant. In music for example, men in question should incur a cost in energy, time, risk and other nutritional resources for their music to be competent in the market. Thus, they acquire lots of fame from the opposite sex and gain a prestige social status (Green & Groff, 2003). By so doing, they will be considered as attractive and creative in the eyes of their musical fans. During ovulation, females also tend to become more aesthetically discerning and willing to view art work of men dancing and singing, as a representation of their talent. Therefore, they are more inclined to this ability as genetically viable. This explains the great obsession of women with males who love music. Moreover, individuals, especially males with these beneficial traits, should plan to get more offsprings, to pass on these traits to them. This is because these traits are selectively inherited (Green & Groff, 2003). It is always found that musicians tend to have several extramarital affairs outside their primary marriages. This is due to their attractiveness to the opposite sex. This often applies to the male population. In this case, instances of women having extramarital affairs are minimal. This does not mean that men do not prefer musician women. However, men gauge the attractiveness of a woman, based on her looks and not based on this achievement. Numerous researches show that men are greatly afraid of accomplished women (Green & Groff, 2003). In order to reduce these cases of extra marital affairs, women in relationships where their partners exhibit high quality traits, should guard their relationships carefully (Green & Groff, 2003). The findings also showed that music peaked after puberty and declined when parental responsibilities came in during mid-adulthood. Therefore, young adolescents should be encouraged to pursue their talent at the youngest age possible. Males should however be encouraged more than females amplifying male variance in the trait. Moreover, inbreeding of mates with good genes can reduce the impact of this trait (Green & Groff, 2003). This is often due to expression of deleterious homozygous mutations. If the music trait is an indicator of good genes that has been subjected to mate choice in previous evolutionally history, then, the effect of deletious mutations can be removed by sexual selection. The evolutionally half-life ought to be short and restricted to all the local populations. On the other hand, if the trait is a good genes indicator, individuals should produce healthier off springs (Green & Groff, 2003). Therefore, in conclusion, an interest in music in men shows a great level of creativity, intelligence, attraction and personality, than men who do not show this interest. Women are also rated higher, if they show an interest in music than others, but not as highly ranked as men. This occurs because of sexual selection with males, placing greater emphasis on physical characteristics that signal reproductive quality. Women on the other hand, place a great emphasis on resources that a potential mate is able to access. Especially, females selecting potential mates, see creativity as an important factor. Mostly, men who show an interest in music, are the most sought after by these women. An important point to note however, is that not all individuals are affected by the evolutionally theory. In fact, these principles apply to human beings as a group. Within this group, there is a great array of variance (Green & Groff, 2003). This indicator is valid, if one’s interest is in music, literature, sports, or any other activity, that is not a reflector of how other people perceive someone (Richerson, 2000). The fact that women find men who enjoy music attractive, not all music genres are appealing in this case. However, this music genre differs from one individual female to another. Popular genres such as reggae or jazz, could not be included in the study. This could interfere with the findings of the study, due to the extent of fascination in them. It is however yet to be determined, whether the display of the preference of music, results in ethnic and racial distinction, or prejudice resulting in different effect patterns on men of different racial and ethnic groups (Green & Groff, 2003). References Becknell, M. E et al. (2008). Effects of Listening to Heavy Metal Music on College Women: A Pilot Study. College Student Journal, 42 (1), 24-35. Cobb, M. D., & Boettcher, W. A. (2007). Ambivalent Sexism and Misogynistic Rap Music: Does Exposure to Eminem Increase Sexism? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37 (12), 3,025-3,042. Cohen, A. J. (2002). Music Cognition and the Cognitive Psychology of Film Structure. Canadian Psychology, 43, 23-28. Deniz, J. (2010). 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