The Golden Section Hypothesis

Abstract

he golden section is 8 proportion the aesthetic properties of which have been extolled since antiquity. The data from five experiments in which subjects made dichotomous judgements of acquaintances on bipolar dimensions (e.g. p h a n t -2 m p l ) were reported. These data indicated that the mean proportion of positive adjectives used in making interpersonal judgements is an excellent approximation of the golden aection. An explanation of this finding was offered in terms of Berlyne's 'strikingneaa hypothesis'. It waa suggested that Boucher & Osgood's 'Pollyt~na hypothesis' should be extended to include the possibility that, by tending to organize his judgements i n the golden section ratio, the person is able to pay specid attention to negative events.* Data supporting the golden section hypothesis may also be found in the Osgood & Riohacda experiment itself. "hey gave subjects 200 sentences of the form X is (adjective) -(adjective), such aa X ia dangerow,empty. The subject's task wm to decide whether and or but should be used to 6ll the blank.From the viewpoint of the golden seotion hypothesis, the subject is being asked to divide the sentences into two classes: those which take and, and those which take but. Since and is positive and but negative (Osgood & Riohards, 1973, p. 397), subjects should use and 02 per cent of the time, and but 38 per cent of the time. Osgood and Richards (1973, pp. 401,409) report that and is used, on the average, 82.6 per cent of the time and but 37.6 per cent of the timeimpressively close to the golden section ratio.

Age-related stigma and the golden section hypothesis

“…The golden section hypothesis has been found when rating acquaintances (Adams-Webber, 1977;Benjafield & Adams-Webber, 1976;Benjafield & Green, 1978), unfamiliar faces (Benjafield & Pomeroy, 1978;Pomeroy et al, 1981), and imaginary persons with nonsense names (Adams-Webber, 1978). The golden section hypothesis and the research affirming it suggest that the mind uses a consistent blueprint for organizing cognitive information.…”

“…The golden section hypothesis is extremely robust and has been documented in a number of studies (Adams-Webber, 1977, 1978Benjafield & Adams-Webber, 1976;Benjafield & Green, 1978;Benjafield & Pomeroy, 1978;Pomeroy, Benjafield, Rowntree, pattern in rating others is said to be an automatic and unconscious thought process (Crowley, 1991;Lefebvre, Lefebvre, & Adams-Webber, 1986). It has even been posited that the golden section hypothesis' repeated confirmation implies that the mind contains an "algebraic processor" for organizing information (Lefebvre et al, 1986).…”

“…The next section calls attention to a robust cognitive process that people utilize to make sense of incoming information. When people lack extensive exposure to new information, they follow a default pattern of thought processing (Adams-Webber, 1977, 1978Benjafield & Adams-Webber, 1976;Raskin, Harasym, Mercuri, & Widrick, 2008). This pattern is known as the golden section hypothesis.…”

“…According to Osgood and Richards (1973), negative and positive are associated with the ancient Chinese constructs of Yin and Yang, respectively. Positive adjectives are believed to have entered the language first and were found to have occurred more frequently in the language than negative adjectives (Benjafield & Adams-Webber, 1976). This suggests that positive ratings are simply a background against which negative ratings are highlighted (Benjafield & Adams-Webber, 1976).…”

Visual analogue scales [letter]

“…The problems of such scales include central-tendency, noncentral tendency, and a tendency to 6.18 cm (Benjafield & Adams-Webber, 1976).…”