VSAC 2017 - Both stimulus and person contribute to preferences for neatly organized compositions.

Abstract

Why do many people like images of neatly organized compositions, collected on blogs like Things Organized Neatly© (http://thingsorganizedneatly.tumblr.com/)? We explored which factors contribute to aesthetic preferences for these images, focusing on both stimulus and person properties related to order, complexity, and the balance between order and complexity. In a large-scale online study, 415 participants chose for each of 100 image pairs which one of two simultaneously presented images they preferred and completed some personality questionnaires (e.g., Personal Need for Structure). In a second (optional) part of the study, 84 participants also rated how ordered, complex, soothing, and fascinating they perceived each of 184 individual images to be. Concerning stimulus properties, the proportion of participants that preferred a certain image in a pair related to differences in average fascination and soothingness ratings between the images. The bigger the difference in average fascination (soothingness) scores was between the images in a pair, the larger the proportion of participants that preferred the most fascinating (soothing) image in the pair. Interestingly, average fascination ratings for the images could be predicted by the average ratings for order and complexity (Adj–R² = .599) and average soothing ratings by average ratings for order (Adj–R² = .362). Concerning person properties, individual tendencies for symmetry, ordering, and arranging and Personal Need for Structure were associated with the individual’s strength of preference for the more ordered image in the pairs. Confirmatory follow-up studies will be needed to test the hypotheses generated from this exploratory investigation.

Date
Aug 25, 2017
Location
Berlin, Germany