Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

SAGETRACK

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Personality and Social Psychology Review
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Reber, R.
Right arrow Articles by Winkielman, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Reber, R.
Right arrow Articles by Winkielman, P.
Social Bookmarking
 Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Processing Fluency and Aesthetic Pleasure: Is Beauty in the Perceiver's Processing Experience?

Rolf Reber

Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Norway

Norbert Schwarz

Department of Psychology and Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan

Piotr Winkielman

Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego

We propose that aesthetic pleasure is a funnction of the perceiver's processing dynamics: The more fluently perceivers can process an object, the more positive their aesthetic response. We review variables known to influence aesthetic judgments, such as figural goodness, figure-ground contrast, stimulus repetition, symmetry, and prototypicality, and trace their effects to changes in processing fluency. Other variables that influence processing fluency, like visual or semantic priming, similarly increase judgments of aesthetic pleasure. Our proposal provides an integrative framework for the study of aesthetic pleasure and sheds light on the interplay between early preferences versus cultural influences on taste, preferences for both prototypical and abstracted forms, and the relation between beauty and truth. In contrast to theories that trace aesthetic pleasure to objective stimulus features per se, we propose that beauty is grounded in the processing experiences of the perceiver, which are in part a function of stimulus properties.

Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 8, No. 4, 364-382 (2004)
DOI: 10.1207/s15327957pspr0804_3


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
Pers Soc Psychol RevHome page
A. L. Alter and D. M. Oppenheimer
Uniting the Tribes of Fluency to Form a Metacognitive Nation
Personality and Social Psychology Review, August 1, 2009; 13(3): 219 - 235.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
Emotion ReviewHome page
R. M. Ping, S. Dhillon, and S. L. Beilock
Reach For What You Like: The Body's Role in Shaping Preferences
Emotion Review, April 1, 2009; 1(2): 140 - 150.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
Br J AnaesthHome page
U. Lopez, W. Habre, M. Laurencon, S. J. Willems, C. Schmidt, M. Van der Linden, and I. A. Iselin-Chaves
Does implicit memory during anaesthesia persist in children?
Br. J. Anaesth., March 1, 2009; 102(3): 379 - 384.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Environment and BehaviorHome page
U. Nanda, S. L. Eisen, and V. Baladandayuthapani
Undertaking an Art Survey to Compare Patient Versus Student Art Preferences
Environment and Behavior, March 1, 2008; 40(2): 269 - 301.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
Poetics TodayHome page
S. Zyngier, W. van Peer, and J. Hakemulder
Complexity and Foregrounding: In the Eye of the Beholder?
Poetics Today, December 1, 2007; 28(4): 653 - 682.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
Learn. Mem.Home page
P. Peigneux, R. Schmitz, and S. Willems
Cerebral asymmetries in sleep-dependent processes of memory consolidation
Learn. Mem., June 6, 2007; 14(6): 400 - 406.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Med Decis MakingHome page
N. Schwarz
When Thinking Feels Difficult: Meta-Cognitive Experiences in Judgment and Decision Making
Med Decis Making, January 1, 2005; 25(1): 105 - 112.
[PDF]