- Empirical Aesthetics: An Overview
- One Hundred Years of Empirical Aesthetics: Fechner to Berlyne (1876–1976)
- Revisiting Fechner’s Methods
- The Link between Empirical Aesthetics and Philosophy
- Appreciation Modes in Empirical Aesthetics
- Exploring the Landscape of Emotion in Aesthetic Experience
- The Neurobiology of Sensory Valuation
- The Evolution of Aesthetics and Beauty
- Historiometric Methods
- Observation Method in Empirical Aesthetics
- Observational Drawing Research Methods
- Implicit Measures in the Aesthetic Domain
- The Study of Eye Movements in Empirical Aesthetics
- Electrophysiology
- Functional Neuroimaging in Empirical Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetics
- Noninvasive Brain Stimulation: Contribution to Research in Neuroaesthetics
- Integrated Methods: A Call for Integrative and Interdisciplinary Aesthetics Research
- The Role of Collative Variables in Aesthetic Experiences
- Processing Fluency
- The Use of Visual Statistical Features in Empirical Aesthetics
- Color
- The Study of Symmetry in Empirical Aesthetics
- The Curvature Effect
- Facial Attractiveness
- The Empirical Aesthetics of Music
- The Aesthetics of Action and Movement
- Aesthetics of Dance
- The Audio-Visual Aesthetics of Music and Dance
- Aesthetic Responses to Architecture
- Aesthetics, Technology, and Popular Movies
- Empirical Aesthetics of Poetry
- Aesthetic Responses to the Characters, Plots, Worlds, and Style of Stories
- The Role of Attention, Executive Processes, and Memory in Aesthetic Experience
- Children’s Appreciation of Art
- The Influence of Expertise on Aesthetics
- The Influence of Personality on Aesthetic Preferences
- Aesthetic Sensitivity
- Cross-Cultural Empirical Aesthetics
- The General Impact of Context on Aesthetic Experience
- Empirical Aesthetics: Context, Extra Information, and Framing
- Studying Empirical Aesthetics in Museum Contexts
- Aesthetic Experience in Everyday Environments
- The Impact of the Social Context on Aesthetic Experience
- Design and Aesthetics
- The Role of Empirical Aesthetics in Consumer Behavior
- On the Empirical Aesthetics of Plating
Abstract and Keywords
The term “aesthetic emotion” was treated differently by scholars from the late 19th and early 20th centuries compared with those from the 21st, and there is much to learn from the “early” group. William James distinguished “subtler emotions” that encompass aesthetic, scientific, and ethical qualities, in contrast to “coarse emotions,” such as happiness or sadness, which are part of everyday life. Others, such as Bosanquet, Clay, Bullough, and Dewey described underlying processes that shape aesthetic experiences during episodes of creation and reception. Their insight is that everyday emotions are elevated to abstract and universal levels during aesthetic episodes, much like Aristotle described more than 2,000 years ago. Later researchers, such as Menninghaus and colleagues, were influenced by the “cognitive turn” and treat “aesthetic emotions” as hypothetical constructs whose independent existence is predicated on word frequencies associated with stimulus ratings. The precision of current empiricism can benefit from incorporating rich theoretical musings of the past about aesthetic processes. A comprehensive model should integrate processes related to aesthetics and emotion during creation and reception episodes. Formal properties of art or literary works can stimulate feelings of pleasure or excitement. The subject matter can offer suggestions that elicit personal connections and related emotions.
Keywords: Aesthetic emotions, subtler emotions, coarse emotions, process model, creation and reception
Gerald C. Cupchik, University of Toronto (Canada)
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- Empirical Aesthetics: An Overview
- One Hundred Years of Empirical Aesthetics: Fechner to Berlyne (1876–1976)
- Revisiting Fechner’s Methods
- The Link between Empirical Aesthetics and Philosophy
- Appreciation Modes in Empirical Aesthetics
- Exploring the Landscape of Emotion in Aesthetic Experience
- The Neurobiology of Sensory Valuation
- The Evolution of Aesthetics and Beauty
- Historiometric Methods
- Observation Method in Empirical Aesthetics
- Observational Drawing Research Methods
- Implicit Measures in the Aesthetic Domain
- The Study of Eye Movements in Empirical Aesthetics
- Electrophysiology
- Functional Neuroimaging in Empirical Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetics
- Noninvasive Brain Stimulation: Contribution to Research in Neuroaesthetics
- Integrated Methods: A Call for Integrative and Interdisciplinary Aesthetics Research
- The Role of Collative Variables in Aesthetic Experiences
- Processing Fluency
- The Use of Visual Statistical Features in Empirical Aesthetics
- Color
- The Study of Symmetry in Empirical Aesthetics
- The Curvature Effect
- Facial Attractiveness
- The Empirical Aesthetics of Music
- The Aesthetics of Action and Movement
- Aesthetics of Dance
- The Audio-Visual Aesthetics of Music and Dance
- Aesthetic Responses to Architecture
- Aesthetics, Technology, and Popular Movies
- Empirical Aesthetics of Poetry
- Aesthetic Responses to the Characters, Plots, Worlds, and Style of Stories
- The Role of Attention, Executive Processes, and Memory in Aesthetic Experience
- Children’s Appreciation of Art
- The Influence of Expertise on Aesthetics
- The Influence of Personality on Aesthetic Preferences
- Aesthetic Sensitivity
- Cross-Cultural Empirical Aesthetics
- The General Impact of Context on Aesthetic Experience
- Empirical Aesthetics: Context, Extra Information, and Framing
- Studying Empirical Aesthetics in Museum Contexts
- Aesthetic Experience in Everyday Environments
- The Impact of the Social Context on Aesthetic Experience
- Design and Aesthetics
- The Role of Empirical Aesthetics in Consumer Behavior
- On the Empirical Aesthetics of Plating