Do reading habits influence aesthetic preferences?

Treiman, Rebecca; Allaith, Zainab A.

doi:10.1007/s11145-012-9424-1

Cited by 15 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Research has shown that despite cultural similarities between the samples, native left-to-right readers demonstrated a strong preference for stimuli with left-to-right directionality whereas right-to-left readers failed to demonstrate such a bias (Friedrich & Elias, 2016). Treiman and Allaith (2013) failed to find a significant difference between native left-to-right and right-to-left readers’ aesthetic preference for images of static and mobile objects. This pattern of results provides evidence that the strength and direction of aesthetic bias seeded biologically can be influenced (fostered or altered) by environmental or cultural factors, such as scanning habits developed from reading/writing direction.…”

Section: A Dynamic Model For the Origins Of Directionality Biases mentioning

confidence: 81%

“…A recent study demonstrated that Bahraini students preferred right-facing pictures rather than those that faced in the direction of their writing system (Treiman & Allaith, 2013), indicating that perhaps the influence of neurogenetic factors overwhelmed the counter influence of cultural habits (reading direction), and the resulting impact was the person having a clockwise/rightward bias. However, in the unlikely event that the environmental or cultural transmission is unbiased/neutral then the direction and extent of bias in visuospatial functioning is solely determined by the direction and strength of the neurobiological influences (e.g., laterality, neurogenetic or neurochemical asymmetry) and vice versa.…”

Section: A Dynamic Model For the Origins Of Directionality Biases mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anticlockwise or clockwise? A dynamic Perception-Action-Laterality model for directionality bias in visuospatial functioning

Karim

Proulx

Likova

2016

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

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Reviewing the relevant literature in visual psychophysics and visual neuroscience we propose a three-stage model of directionality bias in visuospatial functioning. We call this model the ‘Perception-Action-Laterality’ (PAL) hypothesis. We analyzed the research findings for a wide range of visuospatial tasks, showing that there are two major directionality trends: clockwise versus anticlockwise. It appears these preferences are combinatorial, such that a majority of people fall in the first category demonstrating a preference for stimuli/objects arranged from left-to-right rather than from right-to-left, while people in the second category show an opposite trend. These perceptual biases can guide sensorimotor integration and action, creating two corresponding turner groups in the population. In support of PAL, we propose another model explaining the origins of the biases– how the neurogenetic factors and the cultural factors interact in a biased competition framework to determine the direction and extent of biases. This dynamic model can explain not only the two major categories of biases, but also the unbiased, unreliably biased or mildly biased cases in visuosptial functioning.

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Section: A Dynamic Model For the Origins Of Directionality Biases mentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: A Dynamic Model For the Origins Of Directionality Biases mentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticlockwise or clockwise? A dynamic Perception-Action-Laterality model for directionality bias in visuospatial functioning

Karim

Proulx

Likova

2016

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

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“…Left-to-right motion will promote a rightward gaze, causing a majority of the picture to be efficiently processed by the right hemisphere, further supporting Beaumont's (1985) processing-efficiency model. Furthermore, Treiman and Allaith (2013) analyzed the impact of reading direction on aesthetic preference bias for pictures. They assessed participants who either read Arabic or English and found that those who read right-to-left displayed no significant difference in preference bias as compared to left-to-right readers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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

2018

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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.

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“…It is curious that, while many of these studies revolve centrally around the perception of beauty (e.g., Nachson et al, 1999 ; McManus, 2005 ; Masuda et al, 2008 ; De Agostini et al, 2010 ; Powell and Schirillo, 2011 ; Treiman and Allaith, 2013 ; McManus and Stöver, 2014 ; Chahboun et al, 2016 ), very few of them give any concrete definition as to what aesthetic entails. It is possible that this is a conscious choice, in the same way that Weber famously declined to offer a definition of religion in his treatise on the matter ( Weber, 1922 ).…”

Section: Definitions Of Aesthetics In Philosophy and Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first of these is the most straightforward. As some studies use actual videos of motion, we have a fairly uncontroversial measure of the direction of movement ( Nachson et al, 1999 ; Chokron and De Agostini, 2000 ; Maass et al, 2007 ; Ishii et al, 2011 ; Treiman and Allaith, 2013 ; Friedrich et al, 2014 ).…”

Section: Approaches To Directionality In Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Beauty in the Hand of the Writer? Influences of Aesthetic Preferences through Script Directions, Cultural, and Neurological Factors: A Literature Review

et al. 2017

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Human experience surrounding the appreciation of beauty is not static. Many factors such as script direction and cultural differences directly impact whether, how and why we consider images beautiful. In an earlier study, Pérez González showed that 19th-century Iranian and Spanish professional photographers manifest lateral biases linked to reading writing direction in their compositions. The present paper aims to provide a general review on this topic and intends to highlight the most relevant studies reporting preferences in the appreciation of beauty in individuals with different reading and writing directions and belonging to different cultural backgrounds.

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Do reading habits influence aesthetic preferences?

Cited by 15 publications

References 12 publications

Anticlockwise or clockwise? A dynamic Perception-Action-Laterality model for directionality bias in visuospatial functioning

Anticlockwise or clockwise? A dynamic Perception-Action-Laterality model for directionality bias in visuospatial functioning

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

Is Beauty in the Hand of the Writer? Influences of Aesthetic Preferences through Script Directions, Cultural, and Neurological Factors: A Literature Review

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