Towards a unified model of aesthetic pleasure in design

Michaël Berghman; Paul Hekkert

doi:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2017.03.004

Towards a unified model of aesthetic pleasure in design

Michaël Berghman, Paul Hekkert^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Design Aesthetics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

38 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study we test the Unified Model of Aesthetics (Hekkert, 2014), which posits that the aesthetic sense has evolved to identify and value prospects for safety and accomplishment. The principles of unity-in-variety, most-advanced-yet-acceptable and autonomous-yet-connected are considered manifestations of these conflicting urges at separate levels of stimulus processing. We empirically integrate these principles to gauge their unique contribution to the aesthetic experience, using two distinct surveys (study 1-300 respondents and 20 stimuli, study 2-60 respondents and 24 stimuli). Both surveys confirm the three principles constituting the Unified Model of Aesthetics. The principles are found to operate independently and jointly, although unity-in-variety has the strongest impact on aesthetic pleasure.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	136-144
Number of pages	9
Journal	New Ideas in Psychology
Volume	47
Issue number	December
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2017.03.004
Publication status	Published - 2017

Keywords

MAYA
Product design aesthetics
Safety and accomplishment needs
Unity-in-variety

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10.1016/j.newideapsych.2017.03.004

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AB - In this study we test the Unified Model of Aesthetics (Hekkert, 2014), which posits that the aesthetic sense has evolved to identify and value prospects for safety and accomplishment. The principles of unity-in-variety, most-advanced-yet-acceptable and autonomous-yet-connected are considered manifestations of these conflicting urges at separate levels of stimulus processing. We empirically integrate these principles to gauge their unique contribution to the aesthetic experience, using two distinct surveys (study 1-300 respondents and 20 stimuli, study 2-60 respondents and 24 stimuli). Both surveys confirm the three principles constituting the Unified Model of Aesthetics. The principles are found to operate independently and jointly, although unity-in-variety has the strongest impact on aesthetic pleasure.

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JO - New Ideas in Psychology

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ER -

Towards a unified model of aesthetic pleasure in design

Abstract

Keywords

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