Culture constitutes a core condition for human experiences, and it was often assumed that higher collectivism/lower individualism are typical for Asian as compared to European cultures. Evidence, however, was ambiguous. In the present study ( N = 79), we studied whether collectivism in preferences is seen in terms of a relatively higher level of shared tastes. We employed beholder indices/taste typicality to compute private taste from aesthetic evaluations for different classes of visual images of Japanese and European participants. Collectivism for each participant was measured through a standard scale based on participants’ opinions towards their peer group. No difference in collectivism measure between the two populations was found. However, congruence in personal taste meaningfully differed between cultures, showing higher shared taste in Japanese participants for artistic stimuli. These effects reached beyond comparisons by individual collectivistic tendencies. While these findings require replication with larger samples, they point towards meaningful differences in group norm adherence between cultures.

A long-standing argument in art studies suggests that certain artistic examples have some manner of universal resonance or lasting appeal that transcends local conditions and connects with many viewers across time, tastes, and context. However, finding ways to actually assess this, not to mention whether this could be detected across artworks and individuals, remains an empirical challenge. In this exploratory study, we introduce a novel approach to this challenge, borrowing an emerging technique from social, multi-participant neuroscience and Network Modelling methods to examine possible relationships between collective appreciation of media and shared inter-brain synchrony, or similar brain activity patterns across an entire viewer cohort. Thirty participants viewed 60 Western and Japanese paintings, previously shown to be relatively more/less popular among the public, individually, for 30 seconds each. Brain activity was recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) over prefrontal, anterior temporal, and right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) regions. Especially the rIFG had been recently suggested, in an exploratory paper introducing this method, to suggest potential relations between groupwise synchrony, behavioral ratings, and a data-driven means of identifying "resonance" with music and video advertisements. Essentially replicating the past findings, shared synchrony (Network Density) over the rIFG across our viewer cohort did, indeed, significantly correlate to collective appraisal, notably willingness to pay to see the artworks. The result is discussed in terms of functional role, temporal versus static media, and considering the overall potential of this multi-brain hyperscanning method for opening a new avenue into understanding and empirically capturing our collective appeal of art as it manifests across brains.

While the pain- and stress-reducing effects of music are well investigated, effects of visual art and the combination of both modalities (music and visual art) are much less explored. We tested the (1) pain- and (2) stress-reducing effects of a multimodal (music + visual art) aesthetic experience-expecting stronger effects than single modal aesthetic experiences (music or visual art)-and, in an exploratory manner, (3) investigated underlying mechanisms of aesthetic experience and (4) individual differences. In a repeated-measures design (music, visual art, multimodal aesthetic experience, control), 42 female participants submitted their self-selected movingly beautiful visual artworks and music pieces to the lab, where pain and stress were induced by a cold pressor test. Pain (global pain perception, pain intensity, pain affect, pain tolerance) and stress responses (subjective reports, autonomic [electrocardiography, electrodermal activity, salivary alpha-amylase] and endocrine activity [salivary cortisol]) were measured. Individual differences of the experience, trait empathy and absorption were investigated. Exposure to multimodal art resulted in longer pain tolerance (M = 80.19s; SD = 61.05) compared to visual art (M = 56.63s; SD = 47.86), but not compared to music (M = 81.34s; SD = 64.19; p < .001; η² = .039). Other measures of pain intensity, stress intensity, and pain affect did not differ across the conditions. Exposure to all types of art distracted participants' attention from pain, prompted mind wandering, and elicited greater enjoyment than the control condition. While participants were overall more stressed during the cold pressor test, no differences emerged across the four conditions (p = 0.38; η² = .012). Also, no differences were found regarding cortisol and alpha-amylase. Regarding individual differences, higher trait absorption was associated with longer pain tolerance in the multimodal condition (b = 0.58, SE = 0.29, t(120)=2.02, p = .046) and with lower pain intensity in the music-only condition (b = -0.27, SE = 0.12, t(120)=-2.20, p = .030), compared to the other conditions. In conclusion, exposure to art can influence pain; however, the underlying mechanisms require further research.

In museums and art galleries, visitors become less engaged per object over time. This study, comprising a pre-study (N = 31) and a main study (N = 73) in both laboratory and online settings, explores habituation as a potential cause. The primary aim is to reveal the underlying mechanism and propose strategies for its mitigation. Two research questions were set: (1) Is habituation one of the mechanisms behind the decline in engagement? (2) Can inducing novelty into the presented stimulus sequence counteract this decline? In our experiments, we prepared two sequences of art presentations. In one sequence, artworks were presented in sequential blocks by art category, introducing novelty when a shift between blocks occurred. In the other sequence, different categories were presented successively, introducing novelty within blocks. Each sequence was set as the BC (high between-novelty condition) and the WC (high within-novelty condition). Participants were randomly assigned to either one of the conditions. Participants’ engagement level was evaluated via viewing time for each stimulus. We found (1) no evidence for habituation as an underlying mechanism and (2) a mixed impact of introducing novelty between the two studies. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Art has often been suggested to evoke shared emotional and empathetic connections between artists and their recipients. However, to-date, there is little empirical research on whether emotions are actually transmitted through art, especially between viewers and artists. Even rarer: can art actually "bridge" both parties' brains? We introduced a paradigm assessing inter-brain synchrony between artists and viewers via functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning. A cohort of 19 non-artistically trained participants made four abstract drawings, each expressing one target emotion (happiness, pride, fear, anger). The drawing process was filmed and brain activity recorded over affective and cognitive empathy/theory of mind-related cortical regions. A sub-set of the resulting videos (two by each artist, balanced for positive/negative valence) were then viewed by a new cohort of (N = 28) participants while their own brain activity was measured over the same regions and with the task of identifying the target emotion and rating the quality and expressivity of the drawings and difficulty of the recognition task. Behavioral results suggested that all viewers could recognize intended emotions above chance, although with inter-viewer and inter-artwork/artist differences. At the intra-brain level, we found a significant relation between viewers' successful emotion recognition and lower activity in their rIFG as well as between viewers' subjective ratings of task difficulty and drawing expressiveness and activities in viewers' and artists' mPFC and IPL. At the inter-brain level, we found a notable relation between higher coherence between both brains over bilateral lIPL regions and viewers' ratings of lower subjective difficulty in the task. We also detected a positive relation between the artists' ratings of the expressivity of their artworks and higher inter-brain coherence over the rIFG and ATL areas, providing first evidence for an artwork to indeed lead to shared activity patterns between brains.

Although being emotionally moved has been studied as a key dimension of appreciation in visual art research, it remains unclear whether this response truly reflects the distinct emotion of being moved and whether such a complex emotion can be reliably elicited by abstract art in the absence of curatorial text, which provides minimal pre-existing narrative cues for meaning construction. This study explored whether and how such artworks can evoke the emotion of being moved. We conducted three exploratory studies triangulating across methods and contexts. Study 1 assessed how often being moved is related to visual art by collecting autobiographical moving memories using a modified Geneva Affective Questionnaire. Study 2 explored the characteristics of being moved by paintings. Conducted at the Heidi Horten Collection in Vienna, participants completed surveys before and after exhibition visits. They nominated up to five paintings that moved them and rated each selected work on its art features, emotional dimensions, bodily sensations, understanding, elicitors, and prosocial tendencies. Building on this, Study 3 aimed to explore whether being moved could emerge naturally without any priming or explicit guidance. Conducted in the same exhibition, this study used a broad, non-directive survey to measure whole-exhibition-visit emotion profile, including being moved without highlighting it. The results showed that strongly moving autobiographical memories were rarely related to visual art, whereas ratings of being moved in nominated paintings and whole-exhibition visits spanned the full intensity scale. Correlation analyses showed that understanding, elicitors, prosocial tendencies, as well as sadness and arousal, were significantly associated with being moved by paintings. In contrast, low-level visual features that were frequently nominated, such as color and composition, were not predictive, whereas content and personal relevance emerged as meaningful correlates. These exploratory findings suggest that even when viewing paintings without clear narratives and in the absence of curatorial text, viewers can experience genuine, though typically moderate, emotions of being moved. Such emotions appear to depend primarily on viewer-centered meaning-making and interpretive engagement. This not only highlights the cognitive demands involved in being moved by visual art but also underscores lay audiences’ capacity to construct meaning during visual art appreciation.

We investigate the potential for modulations in art assessment, involving either "bottom-up" artwork-derived visual features or more overt "top-down" considerations based on personal history or taste. Such changes-whereby individuals might come to relatively increase or decrease their liking of the same works of art-have been suggested in recent art processing models and may potentially occur in addition to, or even in spite of, preframing (i.e., predictive coding) that may come before viewing experience. To assess this, we showed both novice and expert (art history graduate student) viewers abstract and representational paintings, including a specific variety (kitsch, represented by the artist Thomas Kinkade) suggested to provide a particularly salient example of divergent art, and manipulated exposure times to 100 ms, argued to afford only a bottom-up assessment of low-level visual features, 500 ms, allowing awareness of style/content without conscious reflection, and 6,000 and 12,000 ms, potentially allowing more top-down modulations. We hypothesized that by comparing groups and time durations we might identify a point of inflection-a "kitsch switch"-whereby especially the experts come to dislike the kitsch art. Viewers with relatively higher art interest did show lower liking ratings of kitsch paintings at 500 and 6,000 ms when compared to 100 ms. Those with higher interest also showed an opposite pattern of higher appraisals for abstract paintings at the same longer durations. At the same time, we also found robust evidence for a main effect on rating differences between lays and experts even at 100 ms, suggesting both a top-down and bottom-up modulation of ratings and numerous targets for future research.

Visual complexity is a key factor in perceptual and evaluative judgments. People's representation of visual complexity is constructed from quantitative and structural image features, but it is also influenced by familiarity and expertise. We examined how people represent visual complexity and its impact on perception and evaluation, focusing on information about paintings and their affective valence on judgments of visual complexity, liking and understanding. Seventy-six participants rated 60 representational artworks of negative, neutral, and positive valence on complexity, beauty and understanding. Half of the participants received written information about each artwork. Results showed that negative artworks were judged as more complex than neutral artworks and positive ones, but this effect was attenuated by the provided information. Liking judgments increased with judged complexity, were higher for positive artworks than neutral ones, for neutral than negative ones, and were higher when information was provided. Understanding judgments were higher for positive artworks than neutral ones, and higher for neutral artworks than negatively valenced ones. Information increased understanding only for negative artworks, and judged complexity did not affect these judgments. In sum, the representation of the visual complexity of an image is influenced by its valence and the available information, modulating judgments of complexity and liking, but not of understanding.

We examined how familiarity with low or high complexity images influences complexity, liking and understanding judgments. Participants were first familiarized with either low or high complexity images. They then rated a set of intermediately complex images on perceived complexity, liking, and understanding. Data were analyzed using Bayesian mixed-effects models, controlling for declarative art knowledge, art interest, and visual art recognition. Participants familiarized with high complexity images rated intermediately complex images as less complex, indicating a contrast effect. Higher declarative art knowledge was linked to increased complexity ratings. Additionally, liking judgments were predicted by complexity ratings, especially among participants familiarized with simpler images, revealing that prior exposure shapes the relationship between complexity and liking. In contrast, understanding judgments were unaffected by complexity ratings or familiarization. These findings highlight the role of prior exposure in shaping visual complexity judgments, demonstrating how familiarity with certain complexity levels recalibrates perceptual baselines and influences subsequent evaluative judgments.

Studies suggest that vivid mental imagery can blur the boundaries between reality and imagination in simple detection tasks by eliciting similar neural patterns. The question arises as to whether aesthetic experiences can similarly emerge through imagery or whether these complex experiences necessitate direct input into the sensory system. Alternating between visually perceiving and reimagining encountered stimuli, 34 participants rated faces and artworks across aesthetic dimensions. While slightly less potent, imagery is equally sufficient in evoking aesthetic experiences, and for highly vivid imaginations, evoked experiences even become behaviorally indistinguishable across conditions. Yet, representational similarity analysis reveals distinct neural patterns across conditions as the brain mainly encodes stimulus modality, even in areas canonically associated with aesthetic processing. Thus, although evoked experiences might be behaviorally identical across modalities during highly vivid trials, neural patterns differ substantially due to differences in modality, as evoked experiences are only marginally encoded.

Urban human-made environments present a range of potential benefits for wellbeing through their design. However, there is a lack of comprehensive organization on this topic. To this end, we performed a scoping review to provide an overview of how the urban environment, particularly its designed components, has been previously studied in relation to aesthetics and wellbeing. A total of 255 articles related to urban aesthetics were identified, of which 122 were also related to wellbeing. The results showed the frequency (most and least studied) and the diversity in the man-made components, aesthetic and wellbeing dimensions studied in relation to the urban environment within two decades. Our review highlights the need for consensus in terminology regarding the distinction between aesthetics and wellbeing concepts, and which terms/measures ought to be implemented more in environmental psychology research. All in all, we provide the basis for (1) researchers from various fields, who can use our findings to plan future studies, and (2) urban planners and designers alike, who can use our review to assess the aesthetic and wellbeing potential of urban elements for their designs; so that they can make our cities more aesthetically pleasing, better for wellbeing, and, fundamentally, better places to live.

The visual arts are found across our societies and are tied to a range of cognitive, affective, and physiological impacts. Their widespread engagement remains a core feature of human behavior, cultural practice, as well as an emerging resource for initiatives targeting education, well-being, and societal or individual development. However, systematic empirical investigations on the actual scope and nature of our art experiences are limited, especially when considering nuanced, ecologically-valid engagements that may manifest across emotional, epistemic, and bodily levels. Similarly limited, is our understanding of what kinds of reactions we can actually have, how these manifest, and the extent to which such responses might be either shared or unique across artworks and individuals. In this paper we report the results of a large-scale, multi-site collection of 2,747 reports of individual meetings between one viewer and one artwork, using a diverse artwork range from 11 major museums across Europe and North America. By applying a theory-derived list of 90 phenomenal items targeting the felt-experience and assessing reports with network modeling and latent profile analysis, we revealed five supraordinate profiles that reflect distinct types of felt-experience. These experience types emerged across all artwork-viewer combinations and showed distinct relationships to ratings of hedonic, epistemic, economic, and well-being implications. Our findings provide both first robust evidence for complex patterned, but also shared responses, which may also serve key insights at the mechanistic level, and offer a robust foundation and methodology for future arts research and applications.

Most reading technologies claim to provide experiences similar to reading on print paper. This study compared reading across different digital platforms and print books. Digital reading mediums used in this study were reading on a PC screen, a handheld e-reader and an iPad. A total of eighty participants enrolled in various university courses took part in this experiment. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of the reading conditions, and subsequent eye-tracking measurements were compared. Results indicated that the mean fixation duration was statistically different only for the reading from the PC condition, whereas it was similar across all other conditions. The reading time and the total number of fixations were comparable for the dedicated e-reader, iPad and printed book. This study provides empirical evidence that e-reading tools closely mimic book-reading conditions.

Book covers are often the first component seen before a reader engages with a book’s contents; therefore, careful consideration is given to the text and image features that constitute their design. This study investigates the effects of the presentation of verbal (text) and visual (image) features on memorability and aesthetic evaluation in the context of book covers. To this aim, 50 participants took part in a memory recognition task in which the same book cover information was encoded in a learning phase, and either text or image features from the book covers acted as an informational cue for memory recognition and aesthetic evaluations. Our results revealed that image features significantly aided memory performance more than text features. Image features that were rated more beautiful were not better recognized as a result. However, differences in memory performance were found in relation to familiarity and, in a non-linear fashion, the extent to which the book’s contents could be inferred from the image’s informational content. Additionally, reading behavior was not found to influence memory performance. These results are discussed with regard to the interplay of text and image informational cues on book cover perception and provide implications for future studies.

Colour plays an important role in the sighted world, not only by guiding and warning, but also by helping to make decisions, form opinions, and influence emotional landscape. While not everyone has direct access to this information, even people without colour vision (i.e., blind, achromatope) understand the meanings of colour terms and can assign sensory and affective properties to colours. To learn which aspects of colour are transmitted non-visually, and thus, are pertinent to those without colour vision, we conducted qualitative interviews with 11 participants (2 congenitally blind, 2 early blind, 4 late blind, 2 late blind with synaesthesia, and 1 achromatope). Our thematic analysis revealed that all participants had detailed knowledge of colours and displayed opinions and attitudes. Colour was important to them as it allowed to take part in the sighted world, navigate the surroundings, and communicate with the sighted peers. While participants with non-congenital colour vision absence could remember and even visualise colours, colour was more abstract to participants with congenital colour vision absence. This was possibly a reason why colour was not very important to their personal lives. Nonetheless, all our participants associated colours with diverse objects, concepts, and emotions, and also had colour preferences, indicating that semantic (conceptual, symbolic, affective) meanings of colour can be transmitted without direct visual experience. Future quantitative and qualitative studies are needed for a systematic understanding of such connotations in the visually impaired population, and their implications to those who can and cannot see colour.

The aesthetics of reading have received relatively little research attention, particularly in the context of foreign language readers. In this study, we investigate the impact of text mining-powered graphic organizers (GOs) on aesthetic reading experience with English as a foreign language (EFL) readers. Shusterman's framework of aesthetics was applied to measure reading comprehension, experience, and literary beauty perception. A between-group experiment design (N = 52) was conducted, where Norwegian students enrolled in the International Baccalaureate classes of Lillestrøm High School were recruited. Participants in the experimental condition interacted with GOs before reading the first three chapters of English versions of Pride & Prejudice, while those in the control condition solely read the same texts without interacting with GOs. A statistically significant enhancement in comprehension scores across all subdomains —summarization, vocabulary, and overall comprehension—was associated with the use of GOs. However, the introduction of GOs did not improve or hinder the reading experience or the perceived literary beauty of the text. These findings highlight the efficacy of automatically extracted GOs in improving specific aspects of the aesthetic reading experience. The implications of such findings for individual domains of reading aesthetics and foreign language readers are discussed.

Promoting urban well-being is a significant societal task in the context of rapid urbanization. Past research has highlighted that interaction with urban green spaces, such as parks and forests, is key in promoting urban well-being. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the potential in promoting well-being from non-nature elements. In the present study, we explored whether interacting with art could enhance well-being in urban street contexts. In our field experiment, we built two interventions on urban streets, decorating them with either laminated art prints or green elements. We measured subjective and physiological well-being before and after the interaction with the interventions. With this paradigm, we assessed if, not only green, but also artistic interventions can improve well-being. Our results showed that, after interacting with the artistic intervention in an urban environment, the participants reported reduced feelings of anxiety, stress, and negative mood as they did with the green intervention. Further, our results indicate that improvements in well-being were linked to participants’ evaluations of the testing location (restorativeness), of aesthetic quality of the intervention (e.g., beauty, meaningfulness), and of their overall experience (e.g., enjoyment). These findings have significant implications in promoting urban well-being and city planning, as they highlight the potential of art as a novel tool for enhancing urban well-being.