Private and Shared Taste in Art and Face Appreciation

Area of Science:

• Empirical Aesthetics
• Psychology of Art
• Social Psychology

Background:

• The subjectivity versus objectivity of beauty is a long-standing debate in empirical aesthetics.
• Previous research indicated that facial attractiveness judgments consist of similar private and shared taste components.
• Understanding the nature of aesthetic judgment is crucial for art appreciation and evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the proportion of private versus shared taste in the evaluation of abstract artworks.
• To compare the taste structure of abstract art with that of facial attractiveness.
• To examine the influence of external beauty standards on aesthetic judgments.

Main Methods:

• Utilized variance decomposition methods previously applied to facial attractiveness.
• Recruited 95 women to rate 100 abstract artworks and 100 faces for liking.
• Instructed half the participants to judge stimuli based on perceived public taste rather than personal preference.

Main Results:

• Private taste accounted for a significantly higher proportion (75%) of aesthetic judgment for abstract artworks compared to faces (40%).
• Abstract artworks showed less susceptibility to external beauty standards when participants were instructed to consider others' taste.
• Facial attractiveness judgments were more influenced by the instruction to adopt an external perspective.

Conclusions:

• Aesthetic preferences for abstract art are predominantly driven by private taste.
• Abstract art is less influenced by social conformity and external beauty standards compared to facial attractiveness.
• Findings support the idea that abstract art uniquely reflects individual, private aesthetic sensibilities.