Aesthetics as a common denominator for moral and commercial judgments

Wang, Xuanyu; Simmank, Fabian; Zhang, Dongxue; Zeng, Yifan; Silveira, Sarita; Sander, Tilmann; Bao, Yan; Paolini, Marco

doi:10.1002/pchj.407

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The political abuse of its suggestive power is discussed as well (Vogel, 2009). The similarity between aesthetic perception and other cognitive processes has also been picked up by recent neuroimaging studies, indicating a common brain machinery (Avram et al, 2013; Tsukiura & Cabeza, 2011; Wang et al, in press). In this sense, the cognitive and neural machinery for aesthetic perception and other parts of perception and cognition may be intertwined.…”

Section: Proto‐aesthetic Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Aristotle's dream: Evolutionary and neural aspects of aesthetic communication in the arts

Sütterlin

2021

PsyCh Journal

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Art in general perception is something that transcends our notion of reality. In view of the earliest findings in Paleolithic sites, their abstract appearance and sometimes ceremonial context increased their status of a secret language. Even the first figurative cave paintings remained in a context of an encoded semantic whole. The highly symbolic value of art seemed invulnerable. It was just the claim for "mimesis" in Greek antiquity (Plato) that urged artists to "realistically" depict what can be seen-as to stay in track of eternal messages behind. This devaluated the artistic oeuvre to a purely imitating craft and had to overcome at once several inherent obstacles. First, that reality (the phenomenal world) is in general only a pale reflection of what lays behind (Platonic ideas) and second, that the human eye, unlike the human mind, cannot penetrate to more than ephemeral impressions. Moreover, it mixed up reality with what we are able to see (i.e. visual perception), thus supposing a pinpoint representation of the world by our senses. Aristotle was the first to qualify art as picturing more than we usually are meant to see, filling the gap between the sensual and the spiritual world. Aristotelian aesthetics includes concepts of reduction and selection of composition and emotion, thus a summarized view within any performance of poetics or painting.And it took centuries to close the gap between natural and aesthetic perception or art. Life sciences in the 20th century discovered the evolutionary basis of sensory perception as being highly biased and organized, concept as emotion-driven and thus, mentally equipped as well. This sets a new approach in our understanding of perception, art, and aesthetics as an ongoing communication in process on common bases. Art may cooperate or disagree, but never can cut the nexus with its perceptual prejudices and substrate.

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Section: Proto‐aesthetic Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Aristotle's dream: Evolutionary and neural aspects of aesthetic communication in the arts

Sütterlin

2021

PsyCh Journal

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“…Another study has already shown that there is a connection between the aesthetic assessment of beauty, moral, and economic evaluation. Beauty can be a component for moral goodness or commercial conviction (X. Wang et al, 2021). The effect of aesthetic qualities on moral goodness and commercial persuasiveness can be combined, especially in modern media formats.…”

Section: Beauty In Ethics and Aestheticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beauty can be a component for moral goodness or commercial conviction (X. Wang et al, 2021). The effect of aesthetic qualities on moral goodness and commercial persuasiveness can be combined, especially in modern media formats.…”

Section: Beauty In Ethics and Aestheticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Neuro)Aesthetics: Beauty, ugliness, and ethics

Dietrich

Knieper

2021

PsyCh Journal

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The objective of this essay is a holistic view of aesthetics, ethics, and neuroaesthetics. After a few introductory case studies, aesthetics is systematically introduced as a philosophical subdiscipline. This perspective is then expanded from aesthetics to neuroaesthetics. Using various art forms as well as current media formats, the aspects of beauty and ugliness are discussed, and aesthetic properties are expanded to include ethical implications. These can be expressed through ideals of beauty and the compulsion for body transformation. This perspective is then expanded from aesthetics to neuroaesthetics. From this point of view of art, the so‐called golden ratio will play a central role. It will be shown how representations affect people and what ethical implications are associated with the effects. Therefore, this essay first has to look at art from the perspective of neuroaesthetics, and then consider the ethical aspects of the beautiful and the ugly. The considerations lead to a brief discussion of Socrates's three sieves.

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“…Behavioral studies in “neuroaesthetics” and the identification of underlying neural mechanisms have also led to theoretical reflections about anthropological universals and cultural specifics (Bao et al, 2016), about the general concept of complementarity as a generative principle in aesthetic appreciations (Bao et al, 2017a), or even aesthetics as a common denominator in different kinds of judgment (Wang et al, 2020). Thus, research in this interdisciplinary field of neuroaesthetics with its different empirical approaches and theoretical reflections contributes to better understanding cognitive mechanisms and their neural basis with respect to spatial characteristics and temporal dynamics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As aesthetic judgment might have a surprisingly fundamental role in various judgments (Wang et al, 2020), it is conceivable to relate it to a relatively low level in the hierarchy of cognitive functions. More specifically, the aesthetic preference for the left perspective might be deeply rooted in the context of a basic perceptual bias; facial perception was found to be viewpoint‐dependent (Ewbank et al, 2008; Fang et al, 2007), with three‐quarter faces yielding better recognition over other perspectives (Krouse, 1981; Laeng & Rouw, 2001; Troje & Bülthoff, 1996), and the left view having a higher recognition rate than the right view (Arnold et al, 2013; Kowatari et al, 2004; Siéroff, 2001; Yamamoto et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symmetric in the striate but asymmetric in the extrastriate cortex when processing three‐quarter faces: Neural underpinnings for aesthetic appreciations

et al. 2022

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Faces and their aesthetic appreciation are a core element of social interaction. Although studies have been made on facial processing when looking at faces with different perspectives, a direct comparison of faces in the left to the right perspective is missing. Portraits in classical Western art indicate a preference of the left compared to the right perspective, but the neural underpinnings of such an asymmetry still have to be clarified. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the current study focuses on the processing of three-quarter faces seen with different perspectives. Seventeen participants were asked to passively look at photographs of six male and six female faces with a neutral expression; the photographs were taken from the left, right, and frontal perspectives while keeping their focus on the eyes. The results showed that specific brain areas were involved in processing the three-quarter faces in either symmetric or asymmetric ways. Viewing left and right three-quarter faces resulted in two mirror-like activations in the striate cortex corresponding to the symmetric layout of the left and right perspectives. Viewing the left face resulted additionally in an enhanced activation also in the left extrastriate cortex. The right perspective of male faces elicited a lower activation compared to other perspectives in face-selective areas of the brain. Our findings suggest that the preference of the left three-quarter face emerges already in the early visual pathway presumably prior to facial identification, emotional processing, and aesthetic appreciation. Our observations may have general importance in disentangling different neural components and processing stages in the spatiotemporal characteristics of artistic expressions.

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Aesthetics as a common denominator for moral and commercial judgments

Abstract: Using fMRI, a core evaluation mechanism was found for aesthetic judgments with add-on neural activities for moral and commercial judgments. We propose that aesthetic evaluations serve as a basic core mechanism implicitly for moral and commercial judgments.

Cited by 5 publications

References 8 publications

Aristotle's dream: Evolutionary and neural aspects of aesthetic communication in the arts

Aristotle's dream: Evolutionary and neural aspects of aesthetic communication in the arts

(Neuro)Aesthetics: Beauty, ugliness, and ethics

Symmetric in the striate but asymmetric in the extrastriate cortex when processing three‐quarter faces: Neural underpinnings for aesthetic appreciations

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