"Survey results reveal our hard-wired preferences [for art], which developed when we were Pleistocene hunter-gatherers roaming the African savannah. The landscapes we find most beautiful are simply those from which we evolved. If we like paintings with a foreground of short grasses, it's because that habitat contains more protein per square mile than any other, which is a crucial perk for a meat-eating primate...Dutton sees art as a tool of seduction, an intellectual version of the peacock's tail. Consider poetry, which for Dutton is little more than a way of showing off to potential mates."
Our Inner Artist
A Review by Jonah Lehrer of Denis Dutton's book The Art Instinct
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/08/AR2009010802865.html
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