Diet och testosteronhalt

Still, there's no evidence that women are any less musically inclined than men. Women in all cultures sing to their infants, Trehub points out, and there is no hard evidence that talented musicians are particularly prolific. In fact, Hajime Fukui, an evolutionary psychologist at Nara University of Education in Japan, maintains that music reduces sexual activity. In one study, Fukui gathered 35 male students and 35 female students, measured their hormone levels, and then played them half an hour of music of all types. Afterward, Fukui found, the men's testosterone levels had gone down and the women's had gone up. Silence had no effect.

Fukui believes that when early humans formed communities, they had to develop ways to alleviate sexual tensions. "We may assume that their solution was music," he says. If music lowered testosterone levels in men, it made them less sexually active. If it increased testosterone in women, it made them more aggressive and less social. The net result was less sex, and less sexual tension. "National anthems, work songs, party music, and war music all have the same effect," Fukui says. "They diminish fear, relieve tension, and boost people's sense of solidarity. Music moves people, throws them into a trancelike state, and paralyzes their ability to think logically. We might think that we are the users of music. In fact, we are not the puppeteers but the puppets of music."