Fechner's primary school revisited: Towards a social psychology of taste

Abstract

When applied to aesthetic appreciation, the expression ‘There is no accounting for taste’ would imply that aesthetic preferences are not susceptible to social influence processes. More than a century ago, Fechner, in his book Vorschule der Aesthetik (1876), pointed out that such unsusceptibility seems highly unlikely. According to Fechner, opinions about well-known works of art taken for granted, but when opinions are asked about aesthetic objects of uncertain artistic quality considerable accounting takes place. Attention is drawn to the fact that some of the points of view which were formulated by Fechner in 1876 show a remarkable resemblance to present-day social psychological viewpoints, such as the attitudinal effects of ‘mere exposure’ and the influence of social comparison processes on changes in norms and opinions. By reducing uncertainty, these processes are presumed to create the social reality of our world. The hypothesis (cf. Fechner 1876) that social influence on aesthetic preferences is greater when there is uncertainty about the artistic quality of aesthetic objects has been supported in a series of experiments. Colour slides of figurative as well as abstract paintings were used as stimuli. Source credibility and attractiveness, in addition to information about picture content (Temme 1992), enhanced the appreciation of paintings. Attempts to influence aesthetic appreciation produced both positive as well as negative effects, the latter arising from psychological reactance. The occurrence of reactance supports the hypothesis that taste as expressed in aesthetic appreciation is considered to be highly personal. All effects mentioned above, however, were found when the stimuli were paintings of uncertain artistic quality, but were not found when paintings about which there was no such uncertainty were presented. In the latter case there is no need to use additional information for the reduction of uncertainty. More support for the uncertainty reduction hypothesis was found in field studies in museums. Regular visitors (who often also had formal training in art), presumably having more certainty about artistic quality, expressed less need for information about exhibited paintings than did visitors who had little or no museum experience.