We asked whether and how people appreciate ambiguous artworks and examined the possible mechanisms underlying the appeal of perceptual challenge in art. Although experimental research has shown people's particular appreciation for highly familiar and prototypical objects that are fluently processed, there is increasing evidence that in the arts people often prefer ambiguous materials which are processed less fluently. Here, we empirically show that modern and contemporary ambiguous artworks evoking perceptual challenge are indeed appreciated. By applying a multilevel modeling approach together with multidimensional measurement of aesthetic appreciation, we revealed that the higher the subjectively perceived degree of ambiguity within an artwork, the more participants liked it and the more interesting and affecting it was for them. These dimensions of aesthetic appreciation were also positively related to the subjectively reported strength of insights during elaboration of the artworks. The estimated solvability of the experienced ambiguity, in contrast, was not relevant for liking and even negatively linked to interest and affect. Consequently, we propose a critical view of the frequently reported idea that processing (modern) art simply equals a kind of problem-solving task. We suggest the dynamic gain of insights during the elaboration of an ambiguous artwork, rather than the state of having solved a problem, to be a mechanism possibly relevant to the appeal of challenge in the perception of ambiguous art.

Bateson, Nettle, and Roberts (2006 ) provided an intriguing experimental paradigm for investigating the effects of social cues on cooperative behavior in a real-world setting. By placing an image of a pair of eyes on a cupboard door above an “honesty box” for hot beverages, they induced substantially higher amounts of contributions. As this finding has a significant impact on the social sciences and assumptions concerning the meaning of social cues for human behavior, we systematically reanalyzed their procedure and statistical analyses and tried to replicate the results while taking personality factors into account. The overall results of our analysis and replication efforts do not unequivocally support conclusions about the effects of eyes as social cues for cooperative behavior. Problems start with the definition of cooperative behavior, underspecified methods, confounding variables, invalid statistical analyses, and a lack of insight into the factors – including personality factors – that modulate the expected effect. A follow-up experiment with 138 participants showed no effect of eyes on socially relevant concepts and attitudes. Furthermore, none of the personality factors that, according to Bateson et al.’s explanation of reputational concerns, might be a source of effects interacted with any of the measures we used to operationalize these socially relevant concepts and attitudes.

Elliot, Kayser, Greitemeyer, Lichtenfeld, Gramzow, Maier, and Liu (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139(3), [399][400][401][402][403][404][405][406][407][408][409][410][411][412][413][414][415][416][417] 2010) showed that presenting men in front of a red background or with a red shirt enhances their attractiveness, sexual desirability, and status in the eyes of female observers. The purpose of the present research was to gain further insights concerning the robustness and the ecological validity of this red effect. In two experiments, we replicated the basic paradigm used by Elliot et al. Experiment 1 was a close replication of the first experiment in their original series. We presented the photo of a young man used by Elliot et al. on either a red or white background and asked participants (N = 89, female subsample n = 72) to rate it with regard to perceived attractiveness. Experiment 2 (N = 32) represents a somewhat more complex version of the first experiment; we increased the variance of the stimuli by showing photos of multiple men wearing different apparel styles (formal and casual, respectively). We did not find any significant impact of red in either of the studies. What we found, however, was a significant effect of apparel style with attractiveness ratings being higher for men wearing formal apparel than for men wearing casual apparel. Our results question the robustness and the ecological validity of Elliot et al.'s finding. On a more general level, they further point to limitations arising from (often necessary) restrictions in experimental designs.Keywords Replication . Color . Attractiveness . Red effect . Status Elliot et al. (2010) presented a series of experiments suggesting that the color red enhances male attractiveness and sexual desirability as perceived by women. They further presented evidence suggesting that this effect is mediated by an increase in perceived status. Basically, all seven experiments reported by Elliot et al. followed the same between-subjects design. Participants viewed the photo of a male target person whom they had to judge with regard to different variables, such as "perceived attractiveness," "sexual attraction," and "perceived status" (original variable labels used by Elliot et al.). The color of the background (Experiments 1-3) or the depicted man's shirt (Experiments 4-7), respectively, was manipulated as being either red or a contrasting color, e.g., white (see Table 1 for further details on the specific experiments). An enhancing effect of red was found in five of five experiments for perceived attractiveness and in three of three experiments for sexual attraction (note: in some experiments, more than one dependent variable was used). The mediation of the red effect via an increase in status could be further demonstrated in all three experiments where this variable was addressed via two different approaches: 1) the experimental-causal-chain approach, and 2) the measurement-of-mediation approach.The accumulated results of Elliot et al. (2010)...

Many artworks challenge our perceptual habits and predictions and offer a plurality of potential meanings. However, a conceptualization of such Semantic Instability (SeIns ; X & Z, 2016) and its specifics is vague, yet. We recently presented an extended and systematized view on the concept integrating psychological and art theoretical accounts. In order to structure the perceptual and cognitive phenomena associated with SeIns in art, we now conducted an initial classification study and collected reports of experiences regarding a range of 17 artworks from the 20 th and 21 st centuries reflecting a variety of SeIns concepts. We revealed four clusters of SeIns via a k-means analysis: 1) integrative blend, 2) multistability, 3) indeterminacy, and 4) contrast to perceptual habits. This seminal classification aims at providing the basis for a new and more systematic view on SeIns in art.

In early 2015, a public debate about a perceptual phenomenon that impressively demonstrated the subjective nature of human perception was running round the globe: the debate about #TheDress, a poorly lit photograph of a lace dress that was perceived as white–gold by some, but as blue–black by others. In the present research (N = 48), we found that the perceptual difference between white–gold perceivers (n1 = 24, 12 women, Mage = 25.4 years) and blue–black perceivers (n2 = 24, 12 women, Mage = 24.3 years) decreased significantly when the illumination information provided by the original digital photo was reduced by means of image scrambling (Experiment 1). This indicates that the illumination information is one potentially important factor contributing to the color ambiguity of #TheDress—possibly by amplification of a slight principal difference in psychophysics of color perception which the two observer groups showed for abstract uniformly colored fields displaying a white–blue ambiguity (Experiment 2).