AUTHOR=Schulz Katharina , Hayn-Leichsenring Gregor U. 

TITLE=Face Attractiveness versus Artistic Beauty in Art Portraits: A Behavioral Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02254

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02254

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>From art portraits, the observer may derive at least two different hedonic values: The <italic>attractiveness</italic> of the depicted person and the <italic>artistic beauty</italic> of the image that relates to the way of presentation. We argue that <italic>attractiveness</italic> is a property that is predominantly driven by perceptual processes, while the perception of <italic>artistic beauty</italic> is based predominantly on cognitive processing. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two behavioral experiments. In a gist study (Experiment 1), we showed that ratings on <italic>attractiveness</italic> were higher after short-term presentation (50 ms) than after long-term presentation (3000 ms), while the opposite pattern was found for <italic>artistic beauty</italic>. In an experiment on perceptual contrast (Experiment 2), we showed that the perceptual contrast effect was stronger for <italic>attractiveness</italic> than for <italic>artistic beauty.</italic> These results are compatible with our hypothesis that appreciation of <italic>artistic beauty</italic> is cognitively modulated at least in part, while processing of <italic>attractiveness</italic> is predominantly driven perceptually. This dichotomy between cognitive and perceptual processing of different kinds of beauty suggests the participation of different neuronal mechanisms.</p>