Implicit Association of Symmetry with Positive Valence, High Arousal and Simplicity

Abstract

Abstract. Symmetrical visual patterns are preferred to random patterns. Studies using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) have shown that symmetry is associated with positive valence words (e.g. love), and random with negative valence words (e.g. hate). Valence is an important aspect of emotion, but equally interesting is the relationship between the symmetry-random dimension and the dimensions of arousal and complexity. Possible links have long been discussed but empirical evidence is limited. Using a series of four IAT experiments, we report that participants implicitly associate symmetrical patterns with words high in arousal, and random patterns with low arousal. We also found that symmetrical patterns were associated with simple mathematic expressions, while random patterns were associated with complex expressions. No link was found for another aspect of mathematical complexity (smaller or larger numbers). This pattern of results shows that aesthetic responses to symmetry involve both positive valence and high arousal and that these emotional responses arise from the perceptual simplicity of symmetry, in line with the fluency account of aesthetics.

Brain Activity in Response to Visual Symmetry

“…This effect was robust, and the size of the implicit preference for different kinds of regularity was correlated with the perceptual fluency of these regularities, while there was some divergence between implicit and explicit preferences. Further Implicit Association Test experiments have shown that the symmetry is also associated with high arousal words and simple, easy mathematical equations [99]. The IAT certainly shows a form of implicit evaluation; however these studies are not evidence for automatic affective response to symmetry in the strongest sense.…”

Opposition and Identicalness: Two Basic Components of Adults’ Perception and Mental Representation of Symmetry

“…and there may be various symmetrical axes but this does not make the property of "being symmetrical" qualitatively gradable. On the other hand, studies on aesthetic judgments of symmetry can assess and measure to what extent people appreciate a particular shape or configuration (e.g., [82][83][84][85]) and this goes to show that symmetrical patterns can be graded from a qualitative point of view based on the observer's assessment of pleasantness. The studies presented in this paper, however, take a different approach.…”

Associated and dissociated neural substrates of aesthetic judgment and aesthetic emotion during the appreciation of everyday designed products

“…It's also common that recent fMRI studies in aesthetics focus on emotional contrasts of positive emotion to negative emotion (e.g. Bertamini, Makin and Rampone, 2013;Vessel et al, 2012). In addition, recent studies have found that emotional arousal is critical to aesthetic responses (Bertamini, Makin and Rampone, 2013;Okanoya, 2013) and suggested that emotional arousal should be included to account for aesthetic experience.…”

“…Bertamini, Makin and Rampone, 2013;Vessel et al, 2012). In addition, recent studies have found that emotional arousal is critical to aesthetic responses (Bertamini, Makin and Rampone, 2013;Okanoya, 2013) and suggested that emotional arousal should be included to account for aesthetic experience. To get a better understanding of aesthetic emotions, we therefore included emotional arousal in the behavioral measures and investigated the contrasts between the positive, neutral, and negative emotion in the fMRI data.…”