Art-viewing is a defining component of society and culture, in part because the experience involves a wide-range and nuanced configuration of emotional and cognitive responses. Precisely because of this complexity, however, questions of the actual nature, scope, and variety of art experience remain largely unanswered: what kinds of patterns do we exhibit, how do various components go together, and

Empirical aesthetics focuses on understanding how perceptual features shape aesthetic preferences, with symmetry being a key aspect. However, recent studies show variation in symmetry preference across samples and stimuli. Our study aims to explore the boundaries of symmetry preference, particularly in relation to meaning, prototypicality and expertise in visual arts. With our stimuli we can test the

We explore cultural participation's impact on subjective well-being in Cluj Metropolitan Area. Using telephone surveys, we identify a positive correlation between cultural engagement and increased well-being, mediated by cultural appraisal. Three primary participation types—active, receptive, and entertainment-related—are identified. Active and entertainment-related activities indirectly enhance well-being

Subjective fluency affects preference evaluation in daily objects through two routes: increasing preference (‘hedonic effect’) and amplifying valence effects on preference (‘amplifying effect’). Contrarily, empirical aesthetics suggest that contextual knowledge, the primary source of fluency, prevents valence-dependent appreciation, challenging the amplifying effect model. Here, we examined the dual

The growing psychology of magic field explores how spectators understand, appreciate, and experience this ancient performing art. The present research explored how skeptical, superstitious, and paranormal beliefs predict the enjoyment of magic. A sample of American adults ( n = 292) completed a measure of magic attitudes (the Loathing of Legerdemain Scale) along with many measures of (1) skeptical

The present study investigated the determinants affecting students’ actual use through the use of a video-conferencing platform, and how actual use affects dance engagement, for enhancing the learning experience in the domain of dance education, particularly Philippine Traditional Dances. Therefore, this predictive-causal study aimed to assess the effect of actual use (by adopting Technology Acceptance

Paul Locher passed away on 20 August 2024. Paul was an outstanding scientist and a central figure in the field of empirical aesthetics. He made important contributions to numerous areas including the study of symmetry, balance, facial attractiveness, museum behaviour, artwork composition and restoration, and aesthetics of food, but in particular to the study of eye movements in aesthetic appreciation

This paper describes how computational generative models can describe aspects of the artistic process, and how these generative models can provide tools for formulating and testing psychological theories of art. The term “generative models” here refers to algorithms that can generate artistic imagery, video, text, or other artistic media, including techniques developed in both computer graphics and

Mental health is relevant to every individual. Poor mental health and well-being contribute significantly to personal suffering and a substantial burden on society. Art and cooking therapies in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) are flexible approaches that emphasize engagement and growth to promote mental health and well-being, are easy to perform, accessible when needed, and can be self-administered

Viewing artworks through virtual reality (VR) offers a unique experience, yet understanding how individual traits and motivations affect this process requires further exploration. In this study, we empirically examined the factors influencing aesthetic experiences when viewing artworks in VR. We conducted two experiments using a between-subjects design with VR and 2D videos based on a virtual tour

The primary aim of this research is to investigate the immediate influence of students’ personal experiences and their degree of interest in traditional dances of the Philippines in relation to preservation efforts. Respondents for the study are students from a higher education institution in the Philippines. After obtaining data and performing multiple regression analysis, it was observed that overall

Recent evidence suggests that the artwork of an experienced artist is usually more expensive than that of a beginner. Additionally, the artwork of a man is often more expensive than that of a woman, and a painting is typically more expensive than graphics. However, this research aims to contrast the influence of the author's age and sex on the price with the influence of the artwork's material and

The present study tested the effect of title type on the aesthetic evaluation of Japanese poetry. Ninety participants read a Japanese poem presented with either a “descriptive” title, an “elaborative” title, or no title. Participants then gave ratings according to their aesthetic experiences on the poem. The results revealed that the title type significantly influenced the readers’ aesthetic evaluations

Body dissatisfaction is likely to be particularly salient in aesthetically focused professions, including the performing arts. However, there is a paucity of research involving male theatre performers. This study addressed this omission by exploring how male musical theatre actors experience body image. Interviews were conducted with 7 male performers and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis

Openness to experience is one of the least studied traits in relation to subjective well-being, despite its potential as a resource that enables flourishing. In this study, we therefore focused on this particular trait and examined whether its relation to subjective well-being is explained by receptive (Studies 1 and 2) and participatory arts engagement (Study 2) using data from the GESIS Panel ( N

Contrapposto, an asymmetrical twisting of the hips and shoulders, has historically been associated with beauty and aesthetics in art. While the impact of a female contrapposto posture on perception of attractiveness and visual attention has been studied, its effects on males remain understudied. The current research aims to explore whether contrapposto postures in men influence perceptions of attractiveness

There is a high interest in art's change potential towards sustainability. Yet, there is still a lot unknown about this change potential, including from the perspective of artists themselves. The research questions, thus, are: Do artists who create climate-related art have goals and target audiences regarding their climate-related work? If so, which goals and audiences do they aim for, and why? 30

Using a digital environment, this study tested how setting (museum vs. street), reputation (established vs. unestablished), and style (abstract vs. representational) affected people's aesthetic perception of art. Art novices, quasi-experts, and experts were randomly assigned to rate paintings that varied in setting, reputation, and style. Although there was no significant main effect of setting, follow-up

Aesthetic production, that is, the processing of material with a focus on the experiential and formal qualities of resulting objects and the process itself, encompasses basic dimensions of art, creativity, craft, and design. To explore these dimensions, we propose the Rubicon model of action phases as a general framework. Additionally, we introduce Schiller's aesthetics as an interactive account of

An exploratory study was conducted investigating the concept of beauty related to music listening—“musical beauty.” The study implemented an online qualitative questionnaire aimed to evaluate how listeners construe the concept of beauty, the pieces of music considered to be beautiful, and the intrinsic and/or extrinsic features that listeners attribute to musical pieces being considered as “most beautiful

The Barnes Foundation is a traditional art collection and it is one of a kind as for the assorted hanging of the paintings. The sophisticated wall compositions by Albert Barnes were created as a tool for art education, and they have not been altered since 1951. Today, we are interested whether Barnes’ taste withstood the test of time. We asked participants in an online study to create their own hangings

Previous research revealed that meaning in life is related positively to psychological engagement with art (i.e., aesthetic engagement), such as interest in art, knowledge about art, awe around art, and supernatural attributions for art experiences. We extended this work by considering the relevance of dispositions toward aesthetics (i.e., aesthetic dispositions), such as openness to experience, creativity

Do aesthetic preferences for images of neatly organized compositions (e.g., images collected on blogs like Things Organized Neatly©) generalize across cultures? In an earlier study, focusing on stimulus and personal properties related to order and complexity, Western participants indicated their preference for one of two simultaneously presented images (100 pairs). In the current study, we compared

The field of interdisciplinary art education, particularly through digital game-based learning, lacks empirical research on the art learning process and the competencies gained along the process. To address this research gap, this study collects data through experiment and post-experiment interviews from 20 science and engineering college students who participated in a 1-month digital game-based art

The link between music and emotion, as articulated from a cognitive perspective, assumes that music carries expressive cues that convey or induce emotional responses in listeners. Studies following this paradigm often investigate how responses converge or diverge among individuals, social groups, and cultures. However, results vary from one study to another, with few satisfactory explanations as to

This article examines the role of epistemic value, and social value on behavioral intentions and the relationship between these three factors as antecedents of word of mouth (WOM) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in the opera sector. The effects of these antecedents are investigated using a multimethod approach combining partial least square and necessary condition analysis. A quantitative study

In this study, we examined the associations between music preferences, uses of music and personality factors and facets. The sample included 449 participants (50% female, M = 23.59, SD = 2.14) who indicated preferences for international and regional music styles that were classified into Reflective and Complex, Intense and Rebellious, Upbeat and Conventional, Energetic and Rhythmic, and Regional preferences

Vague, impressive language used in descriptions (bullshit) is thought to make art seem more profound and valuable to the viewer. We studied the effect during art exhibitions in real-life gallery-goers who saw paintings of four artists, each with either simplified, neutral, or bullshitty description. We crafted a typical description of each painting, which we later manipulated in terms of language.

Results remain mixed regarding the effects of incubation tasks on divergent thinking, a type of creativity, generally assessed via the Unusual Uses Task (UUT). Using a within-subjects design, we compared 64 participants’ performance on the UUT, after four different incubation tasks: copy a simple painting, copy a complex painting, 0-back-task, and rest. We hypothesized that an arts-related activity

The aim of this study is to provide a phenomenological description of the art experience and by doing so, explaining why art is generally associated with an emotional response, but talked about in cognitive terms. The study is based on a microgenetic experiment in which the informants, prior to an interview, encounter a work of art by the American artist Eric Orr. The work consists of a pitch-black

We sought to understand the common interaction between music, information and visual art. The evoked affect of college students (N = 47, F = 35, M = 11, NB = 1) were measured via The Implicit Posit...

Everyday objects have often been used in contemporary art since Marcel Duchamp introduced the concept of the ready-made. However, it is not clear how everyday objects are perceived in art contexts ...

Art experts generally perceive, process, and appreciate artworks differently from non-experts. Here we explored whether animacy of the content and prestige of the context of artworks matter to expe...

Research findings in cognitive literary studies show that lifetime exposure to literary versus popular fiction has a differential association with social cognition processes such as psychological e...

This research is framed within the study of automatic recognition of emotions in artworks, proposing a methodology to improve performance in detecting emotions when a network is trained with an ima...

The emotions that can be considered members of the set of Aesthetic Emotions (AEs) is controversial. The present study investigated the terms used by researchers in peer reviewed studies to exempli...

Embodied cognition claims that how we move our body is central for experience. Exploring dimensions of bodily engagement should, therefore, also be central for engaging art. However, little attenti...

Aesthetic appreciation of dance is associated with external components of physical features and audiences’ subjective aspects, which can be explained by cross-modal integration. In this study, we d...

Research on text analysis has demonstrated that texts can reveal various characteristics of individuals, such as personality, preferences, or future behavior. However, despite its numerous applicat...

In the context of rapidly developing technologies and widespread online access, it is important to understand how our perception of images on a computer screen may vary from traditional in-person e...

This study investigated whether there are any pathways by combining the five dimensions (i.e., naïve image, imagination, story, interestingness, artistry) of the painting with naïve and childlike i...

Innovation in arts and cultural sectors is an emerging study. Exploring and identifying driving factors of innovation by arts and cultural organizations can help to understand the implications for ...

This mixed-methods study focused on cross-modal change in perception of paintings, by coupling them with related musical pieces. 120 participants were assessed using an online form, distributed via...

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of music classes conducted with the Kodály approach on the musical development of students. The research was carried out with the mixed method...

Raaga is the heart of Indian Classical Music. A raaga is an arrangement of 12 notes in the octave. Like Indian classical music, Sankari Sangeets which are composed 500 years ago are also based on r...

This study examined the effects of psychotic tendencies on aesthetic preferences for paintings. Although psychotic tendencies and related phenomena are often associated with creative achievements, ...

This study proposed that viewers’ experiential accounts of shedding tears in art museums in their blog narratives can help understand the distinctive characteristics of the tear-shedding experience...

Not only does the art market include human and nonhuman creators, it also incorporates technologically augmented artists, called cyborgs. They use wearables, sensors, chips, and even new organs to ...

Despite fashion being one of the most common and accessible aesthetic activities in everyday life, very few empirical studies of clothing selection and preferences exist. To address this empirical ...

To understand the relation between artistic reputation and sales prices from popular online auction sites, we analyzed over 3,000 online auction sales of 87 American artists who had expertise in wa...

The way in which platforms curate and assemble the music they present plays an important role in mediating fields of artistic practice to audiences. The different curatorial logics of platforms hel...

We employ a cognitive sociological perspective to empirically assess how the evaluation of music fragments – electronic dance music (EDM) in particular – is affected by the perceived attractiveness...

Recent years have witnessed a growth in women’s reading clubs on social media platforms such as Facebook. Using the theoretical framework of Interactive Therapeutic Process, this study examines the...

People visit art museums for many reasons—to see something beautiful or famous, to learn more about art, or to experience a sense of awe. Recently, there has been increased interest in how art muse...

Cultural activities might serve as a buffer to the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. Frequencies of participants’ cultural activities in terms of participation in digital ...

Visual representation as a means of communication uses elements to build a narrative. We propose using computer analysis to perform a quantitative analysis of the elements used in the visual creati...

We report two pre-registered experiments investigating some of the conditions under which readers focus on aesthetically relevant object properties in text processing. Experiment 1 (N = 159) tested...

There is a long history of humans attempting to understand what drives aesthetic preference. One line of inquiry examines the effects of typicality and novelty on aesthetic responses to designed pr...

The relation between empathy and aesthetic experience has been stated early in empirical aesthetics. Aesthetic empathy means the ability to take the perspective of an artwork´s depicted content or ...

We are delighted to present the July 2022 issue of Empirical Studies of the Arts. We mark this new issue with a change in editorial team. Dr Marcos Nadal is stepping down as editor-in-chief after 5 years at the helm. Under his careful and considered guidance the journal has thrived and its reach has greatly increased, harnessing the growing international interest in empirical approaches to music, and