Beyond "consistent with" adaptation: Is there a robust test for music adaptation?
Parker TichkoKevin A BirdGregory KohnPublished in: The Behavioral and brain sciences (2021)
In their article, Mehr et al. conclude that the design features of music are consistent with adaptations for credible signaling. Although appealing to design may seem like a plausible basis for identifying adaptations, probing adaptive theories of music must be done at the genomic level and will require a functional understanding of the genomic, phenotypic, and fitness properties of music.