Why do humans have a common sense of beauty for things like sunsets and do other animals share this appreciation?

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Why do humans have a common sense of beauty for things like sunsets and do other animals share this appreciation?

Ros Groves

Watford, Hertfordshire, UK

Human feelings of beauty often share similar characteristics, despite the object of beauty varying considerably among individuals.

What is common is a noticeable amplification of what an individual ordinarily finds merely pleasant and, crucially, non-threatening. A faint red glow of sunset or a hazy rainbow will turn into objects of intense beauty if they are particularly striking or vivid, spreading across the whole sky. A lush forest will always aesthetically trump a scattering of trees in the local park. Symmetry is also perceived as beautiful in facial and anatomical features.

Significantly, ancient civilisations saw both the rainbow and a vivid red and orange evening sunset as reassuring signs that a storm and its associated dangers had passed. Deep forests and abundant tree growth were viewed as providing wood for fires and offering shelter along with food. Within their community, physical signs of health and wellbeing would come to be perceived as attractive.

Today in industrialised societies, modern technology has mitigated the need for many of these survival-based observations, leaving an evolved sense of aesthetics so that we can be free to admire beauty per se. We even subconsciously transpose appealing aspects of natural phenomena to inanimate objects, in that bright rainbow-type colours tend to cheer us up, while the beauty of symmetry in the human form is also reflected in that seen in plants, ornaments and buildings.

It is virtually impossible to assess whether or not animals have a sense of beauty without falling into the trap of anthropomorphism. My own view is that, without the level of higher human understanding, animals will react solely with the business of survival in mind should they experience an unfamiliar version of something that is normally commonplace. In short, they may be curious and stare in assessing whether it poses a threat or not. They may then investigate further or retreat.

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