Enquist M, Arak A
Department of Zoology, University of Stockholm, Sweden.
Nature. 1994 Nov 10;372(6502):169-72. doi: 10.1038/372169a0.
Humans and certain other species find symmetrical patterns more attractive than asymmetrical ones. These preferences may appear in response to biological signals, or in situations where there is no obvious signalling context, such as exploratory behaviour and human aesthetic response to pattern. It has been proposed that preferences for symmetry have evolved in animals because the degree of symmetry in signals indicates the signaller's quality. By contrast, we show here that symmetry preferences may arise as a by-product of the need to recognize objects irrespective of their position and orientation in the visual field. The existence of sensory biases for symmetry may have been exploited independently by natural selection acting on biological signals and by human artistic innovation. This may account for the observed convergence on symmetrical forms in nature and decorative art.
人类和某些其他物种发现对称图案比不对称图案更具吸引力。这些偏好可能出现在对生物信号的反应中，或者出现在没有明显信号背景的情况下，比如探索行为以及人类对图案的审美反应。有人提出，动物对对称的偏好已经进化，因为信号中的对称程度表明了信号发出者的质量。相比之下，我们在此表明，对称偏好可能是无论物体在视野中的位置和方向如何都需要识别它们这一需求的副产品。对对称的感官偏好的存在可能已被作用于生物信号的自然选择以及人类艺术创新独立利用。这可能解释了在自然界和装饰艺术中观察到的对对称形式的趋同现象。
