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Description: In the visual domain, considerable evidence supports a "processing bias" by which people prefer images that match the spatial statistics of natural scenes, likely because the brain has evolved to process such scenes efficiently. A direct but untested prediction of this bias is that people should prefer background-matching camouflage compared to similar patterns that mismatch the spatial statistics of their surroundings. We conducted an online experiment to test this prediction and show for the first time a human preference for background-matching camouflage. Our results, based on over 1,700 participants, also confirm a seemingly universal preference for the most frequent value of Fourier slope observed in natural scenes, a spatial statistic known to influence both the camouflage and attractiveness of visual patterns. Because processing bias is expected to occur in most animals, the preference for background matching patterns found here should be shared by other organisms. Our results thus suggest that camouflage patterns in animals could serve as evolutionary precursors of sexual signals.

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Visual pattern preferences - Preregistration

Conspicuousness is a known attractive stimulus feature. For instance, a preference for conspicuous colour stimuli was shown in several species (Andres...

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attractivenessbackground-matchingcamouflagehumannatural selectionsexual selection

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