Personality and Aesthetic Preferences in Architecture: A Review of the Study Approaches and Assessment Methods

A clear relationship exists between human personality and architectural preferences. However, reviewing the findings of previous studies reveals that this expectation is not necessarily accurate, as contradictory results have been reported. This study aims to review various research and assessment methods used in previous studies for assessing the relationship between personality and architectural preferences and identify the theoretical and practical shortcomings of each method.

This is a critical review study. A search was conducted in Google Scholar and Web of Science database for published articles in English using the following keywords: "Visual aesthetics," "personality traits," "architectural preferences," "art preferences," and "aesthetic judgments." These articles were first categorized into four groups based on their methodological approaches (physiological, neurobiological, practical, and psychological) and then their degree of success and generalizability were assessed briefly. Finally, due to having lower implementation limitations and a higher theoretical background, the group using the psychological approaches was structurally analyzed from the methodological and practical aspects to develop a conceptual quadruple model. After presenting the model, neural network modeling was used to discover of hidden patterns.

Based on the analysis of the reviewed studies, the psychological approach was a more feasible option for assessing the relationship between personality and architectural preferences. The quadruple model that proposed for this purpose included aesthetic variables/environmental stimuli, context, personality traits, and responses. The machine learning method facilitated the discovery of hidden patterns in relationship between personality and human preferences.

This study proposes a new systematic quadruple model for evaluating aesthetic preferences.