Cargando…
The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach
Cultural innovations, such as tools and other technical articles useful for survival, imply that creativity is an outcome of evolution. However, the existence of purely ornamental items obfuscates the functional value of creativity. What is the functional or adaptive value of aesthetic and intellect...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2023
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9869285/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36698589 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.874261 |
_version_ | 1784876738306637824 |
---|---|
author | Novaes, Felipe Carvalho Natividade, Jean Carlos |
author_facet | Novaes, Felipe Carvalho Natividade, Jean Carlos |
author_sort | Novaes, Felipe Carvalho |
collection | PubMed |
description | Cultural innovations, such as tools and other technical articles useful for survival, imply that creativity is an outcome of evolution. However, the existence of purely ornamental items obfuscates the functional value of creativity. What is the functional or adaptive value of aesthetic and intellectual ornaments? Recent evidence shows a connection between ornamental creativity, an individual’s attractiveness, and their reproductive success. However, this association is not sufficient for establishing that creativity in humans evolved by sexual selection. In this critical review, we synthesize findings from many disciplines about the mechanisms, ontogeny, phylogeny, and the function of creativity in sexual selection. Existing research indicates that creativity has the characteristics expected of a trait evolved by sexual selection: genetic basis, sexual dimorphism, wider variety in males, influence of sex hormones, dysfunctional expressions, an advantage in mating in humans and other animals, and psychological modules adapted to mating contexts. Future studies should investigate mixed findings in the existing literature, such as creativity not being found particularly attractive in a non-WEIRD society. Moreover, we identified remaining knowledge gaps and recommend that further research should be undertaken in the following areas: sexual and reproductive correlates of creativity in non-WEIRD societies, relationship between androgens, development, and creative expression, as well as the impact of ornamental, technical and everyday creativity on attractiveness. Evolutionary research should analyze whether being an evolved signal of genetic quality is the only way in which creativity becomes sexually selected and therefore passed on from generation to generation. This review has gone a long way toward integrating and enhancing our understanding of ornamental creativity as a possible sexual selected psychological trait. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9869285 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-98692852023-01-24 The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach Novaes, Felipe Carvalho Natividade, Jean Carlos Front Psychol Psychology Cultural innovations, such as tools and other technical articles useful for survival, imply that creativity is an outcome of evolution. However, the existence of purely ornamental items obfuscates the functional value of creativity. What is the functional or adaptive value of aesthetic and intellectual ornaments? Recent evidence shows a connection between ornamental creativity, an individual’s attractiveness, and their reproductive success. However, this association is not sufficient for establishing that creativity in humans evolved by sexual selection. In this critical review, we synthesize findings from many disciplines about the mechanisms, ontogeny, phylogeny, and the function of creativity in sexual selection. Existing research indicates that creativity has the characteristics expected of a trait evolved by sexual selection: genetic basis, sexual dimorphism, wider variety in males, influence of sex hormones, dysfunctional expressions, an advantage in mating in humans and other animals, and psychological modules adapted to mating contexts. Future studies should investigate mixed findings in the existing literature, such as creativity not being found particularly attractive in a non-WEIRD society. Moreover, we identified remaining knowledge gaps and recommend that further research should be undertaken in the following areas: sexual and reproductive correlates of creativity in non-WEIRD societies, relationship between androgens, development, and creative expression, as well as the impact of ornamental, technical and everyday creativity on attractiveness. Evolutionary research should analyze whether being an evolved signal of genetic quality is the only way in which creativity becomes sexually selected and therefore passed on from generation to generation. This review has gone a long way toward integrating and enhancing our understanding of ornamental creativity as a possible sexual selected psychological trait. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-01-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9869285/ /pubmed/36698589 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.874261 Text en Copyright © 2023 Novaes and Natividade. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Novaes, Felipe Carvalho Natividade, Jean Carlos The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach |
title | The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach |
title_full | The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach |
title_fullStr | The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach |
title_full_unstemmed | The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach |
title_short | The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach |
title_sort | sexual selection of creativity: a nomological approach |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9869285/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36698589 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.874261 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT novaesfelipecarvalho thesexualselectionofcreativityanomologicalapproach AT natividadejeancarlos thesexualselectionofcreativityanomologicalapproach AT novaesfelipecarvalho sexualselectionofcreativityanomologicalapproach AT natividadejeancarlos sexualselectionofcreativityanomologicalapproach |