Universality and diversity in human song
Science • Vol/Iss. 366(6468) • American Association for the Advancement of Science • Washington, D.C. • Published In • Pages: eaax0868 •
By Mehr, Samuel A., Singh, Manvir, Knox, Dean, Ketter, Daniel M., Pickens-Jones, Daniel, Atwood, S., Lucas, Christopher, Jacoby, Nori, Egner, Alena A., Hopkins, Erin J., Howard, Rhea M., Hartshorne, Joshua K., Jennings, Mariela V., Simson, Jan, Bainbridge, Constance M., Pinker, Steven, O’Donnell, Timothy J., Krasnow, Max M., Glowacki, Luke
Hypothesis
The acoustic properties of a song are positively correlated to behavior contexts cross-culturally.
Note
Listeners identified dance songs most accurately (54.4%), followed by lullabies (45.6%), healing songs (43.3%), and love songs (26.2%), all significantly above chance. The features of songs themselves were recorded in a table (2) within the body of the paper with each coefficient for the pairwise combinations reported there as well.
| Test Name | Support | Significance | Coefficient | Tail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNKNOWN | Supported | p <.001 | (see table) | UNKNOWN |
| Variable Name | Variable Type | OCM Term(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Behavior | Independent | Dance, Games, Infant Care, Magic, Marriage, Recreation, Ritual, Shamans And Psychotherapists, Verbal Arts, Warfare |
| Acoustic qualities of song | Dependent | Music |