Hur, Young-Jin;
Hallam-Evans, Christian;
Garfen, Yvette;
Baiza, Adam;
Spriggs, Tabitha Backhouse;
Mircea, Margareta-Theodora;
Nagy, Oscar;
... McManus, I Chris; + view all
(2022)
Differentiating the Visual Aesthetics of the Sublime and the Beautiful: Selective Effects of Stimulus Size, Height, and Color on Sublimity and Beauty Ratings in Photographs.
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts
10.1037/aca0000480.
(In press).
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Abstract
Despite the philosophical literature concerning the sublime and the beautiful, dating back to Burke (1759/2008), there is still limited empirical evidence regarding the visual aesthetics of sublimity and beauty. The present article asks whether the manner in which photographs are presented can alter the perception of the sublimity and beauty ratings of these photographs. In a set of studies, it is reported that the increase of presentation size increases sublimity more than beauty (Study 1) and that this is mainly driven by the effects of visual angle (Study 3). While increasing presentation height affects both sublimity and beauty positively and in similar degrees (Study 1), the presence of color (vs. black and white [monochrome]) is predominantly related to judgments of beauty (Study 2). Brightness and contrast levels affected neither sublimity nor beauty (Study 3). An important methodological point is that all inferential statistics use linear mixed models, which treat both participants and stimuli as random effects. In addition, each participant receives different random subsets of stimuli, increasing the size of the stimulus set. Overall, the analyses incorporate 233 photographs and 245 participants in total, which allows the generalizability of findings. Sublimity and beauty respond differentially to different presentational cues, which demonstrates the importance of simultaneously considering sublimity and beauty in empirical studies on aesthetic judgments.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Differentiating the Visual Aesthetics of the Sublime and the Beautiful: Selective Effects of Stimulus Size, Height, and Color on Sublimity and Beauty Ratings in Photographs |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1037/aca0000480 |
| Publisher version: | https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/aca0000480 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | sublime, beauty, size, empirical aesthetics, awe |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > UCL Medical School UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10147085 |
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