Beauty for the eye of the beholder: Plane pattern perception and production.

Abstract

Visual patterns are a key phenomenon in human aesthetics, reflecting a human "sense of order" (Gombrich, 1984). Social effects on the producer of visual aesthetic output may shed light on intuitive aesthetic knowledge that laypeople can utilize without explicit instructions, with implications for the evolution of aesthetics in humans more generally. We apply all 3 methods suggested by Gustav Fechner (preference, production, and use; Fechner 1871, 1876) to visual geometrical patterns, showing that symmetrical patterns are not only used most frequently in real life but are also produced spontaneously in the lab and are rated as significantly more attractive than are random patterns. We demonstrate that an anticipated audience affects the pleasingness of geometrical patterns produced by participants in the laboratory. Visual patterns created by participants instructed to make patterns that others will like are indeed rated more highly than are those that were made under the instruction to make patterns that are mainly pleasing to the producer.

The aesthetic quality model: Complexity and randomness as foundations of visual beauty by signaling quality.

“…In social and cognitive psychology, it is a common problem that stimuli on which researchers test their predictions may not be representative of a general population of these stimuli, which can lead to biased findings (Westfall et al, 2015). To our knowledge, in previous research on beauty, various stimuli were used, from patterns to images (e.g., Forsythe et al, 2011; Newman & Bloom, 2012; Pelowski et al, 2018; Westphal-Fitch & Fitch, 2017). These stimuli were typically created by following a certain rationale or selected from websites or among various artworks, but it was not considered whether they exemplify the entire stimuli population to which they belong.…”

“…We propose that a key factor is the patterns’ randomness. Disordered images are generally perceived as less beautiful than the ordered ones (e.g., Bertamini et al, 2013; Makin et al, 2012; Westphal-Fitch & Fitch, 2017). Within our aesthetic quality model, we posit that this is the case because disorder is associated with chance and the absence of creative process that requires skill (Falk & Konold, 1997; Gabriel & Quillien, 2019; Serafin et al, 2011).…”

“…So far, few studies have investigated how different combinations of randomness and complexity shape aesthetic perception (Westphal-Fitch & Fitch, 2017). For example, Van Geert and Wagemans (2021) studied the perception of colored compositions.…”

The aesthetics of frieze patterns: Effects of symmetry, motif, and element size

“…Another recent study using frieze-like stimuli also finds an order preference. Westphal-Fitch and Fitch (2017) had participants rate bench tile patterns with translational, reflectional and rotational symmetry (low entropy scores) and those with random patterning (high entropy scores). Observers preferred symmetric tiles.…”

How to Lay Bricks: Local-Global Alignment Predicts Preference for Shifted Tile Patterns

“…However they also found individual differences in which some of the participants preferred non-symmetric patterns. Westphal-Fitch and Fitch (2017) found that symmetrical geometric patterns were rated significantly more attractive than random patterns. Westphal-Fitch and Fitch (2013) looked at preferences for "crazy quilts," those intended to appear haphazard and unstructured.…”