Musicians are more desirable dates to both men and women, supporting Darwin’s sexual selection hypothesis

A new experimental study in Austria found that presenting a man as a performer of music significantly increased his desirability as a date and his attractiveness to women. Presenting a female as a performer of music increased her desirability as a date to men. The study was published in Frontiers in Psychology. Scientists have long wondered about the origin and the social function of music. On the one hand, music is a universal phenomenon found in cultures across the world. On the other hand, musical behavior has no immediate survival value and it is, therefore, unclear how it evolved and beca...