Art perception is affected by negative knowledge about famous and unknown artists

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Art History

Background:

• Artist biographies sometimes contain negative social-emotional information.
• The influence of such negative knowledge on art reception is not fully understood.
• Artist fame may or may not mitigate this influence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how negative biographical knowledge affects aesthetic experience and perception of artworks.
• To examine if an artist's fame influences the impact of negative biographical information.
• To explore both behavioral and neurocognitive responses to art under varying biographical knowledge conditions.

Main Methods:

• Two preregistered experiments were conducted.
• Participants rated artworks attributed to artists with negative versus neutral biographical information.
• Neurocognitive measures, including early brain activity (P1, EPN), were recorded alongside aesthetic ratings.

Main Results:

• Paintings by artists with negative biographies were liked less and rated lower in quality.
• Negative biographical knowledge increased arousal, without being modulated by artist renown.
• Replicated behavioral findings and observed enhanced early visual perception and emotional arousal brain activity.

Conclusions:

• Negative social-emotional knowledge about artists significantly impacts explicit aesthetic evaluations.
• This negative knowledge can influence the perceptual processing of artworks.
• The findings suggest that negative artist biographies can shape art reception at both conscious and subconscious levels.