Status and mating success amongst visual artists

Geoffrey Miller has hypothesized that producing artwork functions as a mating display. Here we investigate the relationship between mating success and artistic success in a sample of 236 visual artists. Initially, we derived a measure of artistic success that covered a broad range of artistic behavi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in psychology 2011-01, Vol.2, p.310-310
Main Authors: Clegg, Helen, Nettle, Daniel, Miell, Dorothy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
artists
evolutionary psychology
Identity
mating success
Psychology
status
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Summary:Geoffrey Miller has hypothesized that producing artwork functions as a mating display. Here we investigate the relationship between mating success and artistic success in a sample of 236 visual artists. Initially, we derived a measure of artistic success that covered a broad range of artistic behaviors and beliefs. As predicted by Miller's evolutionary theory, more successful male artists had more sexual partners than less successful artists but this did not hold for female artists. Also, male artists with greater artistic success had a mating strategy based on longer term relationships. Overall the results provide partial support for the sexual selection hypothesis for the function of visual art.
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00310