Cultural Relativity in Aesthetic Judgments: An Empirical Study

Abstract

179 British students rated the aesthetic appeal of 131 designs and 135 polygons on a 5-point scale. Similar judgments were made by 115 Japanese students who did not, however, rate both designs and polygons but rather one or the other set. Correlations between mean ratings for the designs and polygons were uniformly positive and high, suggesting the comparative absence of cultural factors determining aesthetic judgments in this field. The data were interpreted as favouring Eysenck's theory of a general factor of aesthetic judgment in the visual field.