11:00 - 12:30
Wed—HZ_11—Talks8—80
Wed-Talks8
Room:
Room: HZ_11
Chair/s:
Thomas Jacobsen
Ten years of experimental studies on visual preference for curvature.
Wed—HZ_11—Talks8—8005
Presented by: Enric Munar
Enric Munar *Erick Chuquichambi
University of the Balearic Islands
In 2014, we presented “Visual Preference for Curvature as a Potential Aesthetic Primitive” at the IAEA conference. Ten years and fourteen studies later, we will show some conclusions. We found the effect of preference for curvature in small-scale societies relatively uninfluenced by Western culture. We also found it in great apes. The effect size is bigger in meaningless patterns than in images of real objects. We found that we react faster to circles than triangles, contrary to some studies. We also found that the effect is mainly caused by an inclination toward curved contours and not by rejecting sharp-angled contours. We showed that familiarity does not explain the effect. We found that curved drawings are preferred to draw than sharp-angled ones. We also found the effect in paintings, both in the lab with digital paintings and in museums, with the original artworks. We also have found a remarkable breadth of variation among participants in most of our studies. In a systematic meta-analysis, we found a medium effect size of the visual preference for curvature that is moderated by presentation time, stimulus type, expertise, and task. The results suggested that the effect is a reliable but not a universal phenomenon. However, we advocate that the effect seems innate as it manifests itself behaviourally in certain situations that favour its appearance. We will propose the next steps to try to find out more about this effect.
Keywords: Visual preferences, empirical aesthetics, preference for curvature.