creators_name: Ghirlanda, Stefano creators_name: Jansson, Liselotte creators_name: Enquist, Magnus type: journalp datestamp: 2006-12-03 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:56:43 metadata_visibility: show title: Chickens prefer beautiful humans ispublished: pub subjects: bio-etho subjects: bio-ani-cog subjects: phil-mind subjects: evol-psy subjects: bio-ani-behav full_text_status: public keywords: facial attractiveness, generalization abstract: We trained chickens to react to an average human female face but not to an average male face (or vice-versa). In a subsequent test, the animals showed preferences for faces consistent with human sexual preferences (obtained from university students). This suggests that human preferences arise from general properties of nervous systems, rather than from face-specific adaptations. We discuss this result in the light of current debate on the meaning of sexual signals, and suggest further tests of existing hypotheses about the origin of sexual preferences. date: 2002 date_type: published publication: Human Nature volume: 13 pagerange: 383-389 refereed: TRUE citation: Ghirlanda, Stefano and Jansson, Liselotte and Enquist, Magnus (2002) Chickens prefer beautiful humans. [Journal (Paginated)] document_url: http://cogprints.org/5272/1/ghirlanda_jansson_enquist2002.pdf