Children's Liking of Landscape Paintings as a Function of Their Perceptions of Prospect, Refuge, and Hazard

Abstract

Prospect-refuge theory was used to study children's aesthetic responses to landscape paintings. Sixty-seven children between the ages of 8 and 15 years reported their liking for 28 landscape paintings and their perceptions of the degree of prospect, refuge, and hazard in those paintings. Consistent with expectations, children were able to express systematic preferences and judgments of degrees of prospect, refuge, and hazard. Liking was significantly related to perceptions of prospect, to interactions between prospect and refuge, and to interactions between prospect and hazard. Contrary to expectations, age did not moderate the effects of prospect, refuge, and hazard perceptions on liking and boys, but not girls, actually preferred pictures that they perceived to be more hazardous than other pictures. Results are discussed in terms of consistency with previous results and with Darwinian explanations for aesthetic feelings.Landscape paintings and photographs are ubiquitous in public spaces and in corporate offices. Retail stores feature large collections of landscapes by unknown artists along with pictures of celebrities, movie posters, and reproductions of famous works of art. The online store Art.com advertises more than 12,000 images under the label scenic. A small body of empirical literature suggests that on average, landscape paintings are preferred to common 373

6 Positive Change in Environment: Aesthetics, Environmental Flowability and Well-Being

“…This theory would explain our preference for panoramas and elevations, which at the same time provide control and protection allowing a broad view. A study conducted on a sample of children tested this hypothesis, resulting in only a partial confirmation, as the prospect factor was found to be closely related to aesthetic preference whereas the refuge factor did not have the same statistical significance (Fisher & Shrout, 2006). Both theories follow the general idea that Wilson (1984) called biophilia, a supposed innate bond between human beings and the other living creatures developed in the phylogenesis as functional to the survival of the species.…”

Functional analysis of concealment: A novel application of prospect and refuge theory

“…All the other age groups (ninth graders, college students, and older adults) did not display a preference for the savanna and preferred the other biomes instead (Fisher & Shrout, 2006). This study demonstrates how with age, this innate preference for areas high in prospect and refuge, like the savanna, can be modified by experience and familiarity (Kaplan, 1987).…”

“…In their widely cited article Balling and Falk (1982) compared children's preferences to visit scenes in photographs of biomes: deciduous forest, coniferous forest, tropical rain forest, desert, and the savanna (Fisher & Shrout, 2006). Savannas are considered environments with both prospect and refuge elements.…”

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“…Appleton (1988) suggested that our evolution has likely endowed us with powerful and immediate reactions to environments, as this directly affects our likelihood of survival. However, research in this area is limited (Fischer & Shrout, 2006;Klopp & Mealey, 1998;Mealey & Theis, 1995;Stamps, 2008).…”