Cultural differences in lateral biases on aesthetic judgments: The effect of native reading direction

Abstract

Left-to right (LTR) or right-to-left (RTL) directionality bias has been proposed to influence individuals' aesthetic preference for dynamic stimuli. Two general theoretical propositions attempt to account for this bias. One states that directionality bias is based on scanning habits due to cultural differences in native reading/writing direction, whereas the other proposition speculates that LTR motion bias occurs due to the right hemisphere's specialization in visuospatial processing. The current study assessed the aesthetic preference bias present when native LTR and RTL readers evaluated fashion garments on the runway in LTR or RTL motion. The aim of the study was to assess aesthetic preference bias for a novel dynamic stimulus and the corresponding influence of biological and cultural factors. Native LTR and RTL readers viewed two blocks of 20 mirror-reversed video pairs with models wearing dresses on a runway. Participants indicated which dress within the mirror-reversed pair they preferred. LTR readers displayed a significant leftward aesthetic preference bias indicating a preference for dresses moving LTR. RTL readers did not display a significant aesthetic preference bias for dresses moving in either direction. These results further support the generalizability of aesthetic preference biases for novel dynamic stimuli and support seminal literature that argues the bias occurs due to a combination of hemispheric dominance and cultural differences in native reading/writing direction.

Abstract concepts: external influences, internal constraints, and methodological issues

“…Left-to-right French readers indicated more frequently that the rightward image was more aesthetically pleasing, "in flow" with their direction of reading, while right-to-left Hebrew readers preferred leftward objects. Similar patterns were found in follow-up studies with ethic groups of various reading directions (Ishii et al, 2011;Nachshon et al, 1999;Nittono et al, 2020) as well as for dynamic video stimuli (Friedrich et al, 2014(Friedrich et al, , 2016 and evaluation of fashion garments on the runway in left-to-right or rightto-left motion (Flath et al, 2019). When a series of objects are horizontally placed in a picture, left-to-right readers preferred compositions with the object of interest is to the right rather than on the left side of the composition (at the beginning of the habitual scanning direction (Christman & Pinger, 1997).…”

The Brain’s Asymmetric Frequency Tuning: Asymmetric Behavior Originates from Asymmetric Perception

“…For example, various asymmetries in spatial composition were found, such as: (a) a preference to place content of greater interest ('weight') on the right compared to the left side (the Right Bias), at least in right-handed participants [199,200], (b) similar asymmetrical spatial preferences for larger salient content on the right side of paintings [199], (c) the scanning motion bias, according to which we tend to scan our perceptual field left-to-right [201,202], which is in accordance with a preference for stimuli with left-to-right directionality [203]. Moreover, Maass, Pagani, and Berta (2007) [204] found that left-to-right readers rated movie clips of lateral actions as stronger, faster, and more beautiful when actions had left-to-right directionality, while right-to-left readers showed the reverse pattern (see Reference [205]), (d) a leftward attractiveness bias, according to which participants judge the left side of abstract visual patterns as more attractive than the right side [206].…”

“…The lack of comprehensive cross-cultural studies makes it hard to decide the possibility of a biological origin of these effects. The current results from cross-cultural studies seem to favor a view that the aesthetic preference bias is grounded in hemispheric specialization, but its strength is modulated by learned scanning habits such as reading direction [205].…”

The Effect of Simultaneously Presented Words and Auditory Tones on Visuomotor Performance

“…The significant imbalance in responding between congruent prime-target pairs on time taken to land the first fixation (a behavior that precedes motor responses) further attests that attention is not homogenously distributed but follows a preferential pattern -otherwise no differences between congruencies would have emerged. These results suggest that the precedence of the rightward scanning direction must be due, at least in part, to habitualized regularities brought upon by the convention for text direction (Bergen and Lau, 2012;Bettinsoli et al, 2019;Bulf et al, 2017;Flath et al, 2019). In fact, by acknowledging that universal genetic proclivities for a left anchoring of attention exist (Brooks et al, 2014), the right-sided advantage observed with time words in unimodal trials (which counters leftward biological predispositions) shows that reading and writing regularities must exert some form of attention control.…”