| dc.description.abstract | Life History Theory (LHT) is an evolutionary framework constructed to explain variation in human behavior and development based on a cost-benefit analysis. As such, individuals exhibit life history (LH) strategies, which reside on a slow to fast continuum. Environment is a key factor in influencing individual LH trajectories, which impact many other features including reproductive timing, amount of offspring, and parental investment (Del Giudice, Gangestad, & Kaplan, 2015 & Mittal, & Griskevicius, 2014). In addition, there are several studies linking music to environment, but few to none who examine this relationship through an evolutionary perspective. This paper investigates the relationship between LHT and music preference. It was predicted that slow strategists would prefer jazz and classical music, fast strategists would prefer rap/hip-hop, rock, and heavy metal, and individuals who preferred pop and country music would not correlate with a specific LH Strategy. Results indicated that preferences for heavy metal music have a positive relationship with short-term mating and a negative relationship with long-term mating, correlating to characteristics of fast LH strategies. There was also a negative relationship between a preference for religious music and short-term mating and a positive relationship between a preference for classical and alternative music with long-term mating, all of which correlate to characteristic of slow LH strategies. These results propose that there is a link between music preference and LH strategy. | |
