Varella Marco Antonio Correa
Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Front Psychol. 2021 Dec 21;12:769915. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.769915. eCollection 2021.
Darwin explored the evolutionary processes underlying artistic propensities in humans. He stressed the universality of the human mind by pointing to the shared pleasure which all populations take in dancing, engaging in music, acting, painting, tattooing, and self-decorating. Artistic motivation drives/reinforces individuals to engage in aesthetically oriented activities. As curiosity/play, artistic behavior is hypothesized as a functionally autonomous activity motivated intrinsically through an evolved, specific, and stable aesthetic motivational system. The author tested whether artistic motivation is rather intrinsically sourced, domain-specific, and temporally stable using a large decades-long real-life public Brazilian database of university applications. In Study I, the author analyzed reasons for career-choice responded to by 403,832 late-adolescent applicants (48.84% women), between 1987 and 1998. In Study II, the author analyzed another career-choice reason question responded to by 1,703,916 late-adolescent applicants (51.02% women), between 1987 and 2020. Music, Dance, Scenic Arts, Visual Arts, and Literary Studies, in combination, presented a higher percentage of individuals reporting intrinsic factors (e.g., personal taste/aptitude/fulfillment) and the lower proportion reporting extrinsic motives (e.g., the influence of media/teacher/family, salary, social contribution/prestige) than other career groups. If artistic motivation were a recent by-product of general curiosity or status-seeking, artistic and non-artistic careers would not differ. Overall, intrinsic motives were 2.60-6.35 times higher than extrinsic factors; among artistic applicants' were 10.81-28.38 times higher, suggesting domain-specificity. Intrinsic motivation did not differ among artistic careers and remained stable throughout the periods. Converging results corroborated a specific, stable, and intrinsically sourced artistic motivation consistent with its possible evolutionary origins.
达尔文探究了人类艺术倾向背后的进化过程。他通过指出所有人都能从舞蹈、音乐、表演、绘画、纹身和自我装饰中获得共同的愉悦，强调了人类思维的普遍性。艺术动机促使/强化个体参与以审美为导向的活动。作为好奇心/玩耍，艺术行为被假定为一种功能上自主的活动，通过一个进化而来的、特定的、稳定的审美动机系统内在地驱动。作者使用巴西一个长达数十年的大学申请真实生活公共数据库，测试了艺术动机是否更具内在来源、领域特定性和时间稳定性。在研究一中，作者分析了1987年至1998年间403832名青少年晚期申请者（48.84%为女性）对职业选择的原因。在研究二中，作者分析了1987年至2020年间1703916名青少年晚期申请者（51.02%为女性）对另一个职业选择原因问题的回答。与其他职业群体相比，音乐、舞蹈、舞台艺术、视觉艺术和文学研究相结合，报告内在因素（如个人品味/才能/成就感）的个体比例更高，报告外在动机（如媒体/教师/家庭的影响、薪水、社会贡献/声望）的比例更低。如果艺术动机是一般好奇心或追求地位的近期副产品，那么艺术和非艺术职业就不会有差异。总体而言，内在动机比外在因素高2.60至6.35倍；在艺术申请者中则高10.81至28.38倍，表明具有领域特定性。内在动机在艺术职业之间没有差异，并且在整个时期都保持稳定。趋同的结果证实了一种特定的、稳定的、内在来源的艺术动机，这与它可能的进化起源相一致。
