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Intense Beauty Requires Intense Pleasure
Aenne A Brielmann1, Denis G Pelli1,2
1Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, United States.
Frontiers in Psychology
|November 22, 2019
Summary
Intense beauty requires intense pleasure, as individuals with anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure) could not perceive high beauty. Beauty perception is more personal than universal, driven by individual taste.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Aesthetics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Fechner's initial theory proposed beauty as immediate pleasure, directly linking an object's pleasure to its value.
- Previous research established a strong correlation between intense pleasure and intense beauty.
- This study investigates the necessity of intense pleasure for experiencing intense beauty.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if intense pleasure is a prerequisite for intense beauty.
- To examine the relationship between anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure) and the perception of intense beauty.
- To explore the relative contributions of personal versus shared taste in beauty ratings.
Main Methods:
- 757 online participants rated the intensity of beauty experienced from 900 OASIS images.
- Image valence (pleasure/displeasure) and arousal ratings were utilized.
- Participant self-reports included anhedonia (TEPS), mood, and depression (PHQ-9) assessments.
Main Results:
- Beauty ratings strongly correlated with pleasure ratings (r=0.75) but not arousal.
- Images with high pleasure (above 4/7) frequently achieved high beauty ratings.
- Anhedonia and mood, but not depression, correlated with beauty ratings for highly pleasurable images.
- Highly anhedonic participants failed to reach median beauty ratings, unlike others.
Conclusions:
- Intense beauty is contingent upon the experience of intense pleasure.
- The inability to experience pleasure (anhedonia) significantly impairs the perception of intense beauty.
- Personal taste (58%) is a stronger determinant of beauty perception than shared taste (19%).
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