Bird calls and other animal sounds often seem most attractive to both humans and animals.

Researchers tested 110 pairs of mate-attraction sounds from 16 species with over 4,000 human listeners and found people tended to prefer the same versions animals did; agreement was stronger when animals showed clearer preferences and often favored added flourishes or 'adornments'.

Researchers revisited Charles Darwin’s suggestion that humans and other animals share tastes by comparing animal mate-attraction sounds with human judgments. They compiled 110 pairs of recorded calls and signals from 16 species, drawn from decades of published studies and existing experiments. More than 4,000 people played a gamified online task where they chose which sound in each pair they preferred. The study measured both which sounds people chose and how quickly they clicked, and compared those responses to previously observed animal preferences. Key findings: - Across the dataset, human listeners tended to agree with the versions animals had been shown to prefer. - The study used 110 sound pairs from 16 species and responses from over 4,000 human participants. - Stronger animal preference was associated with higher human agreement and faster human response times. - Added flourishes or “adornments” (trills, chucks, clicks and similar extras) were especially likely to be preferred by both animals and people. - Musical training or expertise did not predict agreement, while higher reported daily music listening was linked to greater agreement. Summary: The results suggest that shared perceptual biases or common features of sensory systems may help explain why humans and many animals prefer similar sounds. The study raises questions about whether visual or olfactory preferences show the same pattern and what neural mechanisms underlie these quick aesthetic judgments. Undetermined at this time.