Abstract
To what extent do aesthetic taste and our interest in the arts constitute who we are? In this paper, we present a series of empirical findings that suggest an Aesthetic Self Effect supporting the claim that our aesthetic engagements are a central component of our identity. Counterfactual changes in aesthetic preferences, for example, moving from liking classical music to liking pop, are perceived as altering us as a person. The Aesthetic Self Effect is as strong as the impact of moral changes, such as altering political partisanship or religious orientation, and significantly stronger than for other categories of taste, such as food preferences (Study 1). Using a multidimensional scaling technique to map perceived aesthetic similarities among musical genres, we determined that aesthetic distances between genres correlate highly with the perceived difference in identity (Study 2). Further studies generalize the Aesthetic Self Effect beyond the musical domain: general changes in visual art preferences, for example from more traditional to abstract art, also elicited a strong Self Effect (Study 3). Exploring the breadth of this effect we also found an Anaesthetic Self Effect. That is, hypothetical changes from aesthetic indifference to caring about music, art, or beauty are judged to have a significant impact on identity. This effect on identity is stronger for aesthetic fields compared to leisure activities, such as hiking or playing video games (Study 4). Across our studies, the Anaesthetic Self Effect turns out to be stronger than the Aesthetic Self Effect. Taken together, we found evidence for a link between aesthetics and identity: we are aesthetic selves. When our tastes in music and the arts or our aesthetic interests change we take these to be transformative changes.
Highlights
Within philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, research on personal identity has tended to focus on certain traits such as memory or experience of agency
We have explored how the relationship between aesthetic preferences and personal identity is conceived within a general population
To our knowledge this is the first systematic exploration of the hypothesis that changes in taste and aesthetic values would be perceived as impacting the identity of the person undergoing the change
Summary
Psychology, and neuroscience, research on personal identity has tended to focus on certain traits such as memory or experience of agency. We adapted methods employed in previous vignette studies that specified a trait change and asked participants to what degree they would perceive themselves or others as being the same person after such a change (Blok et al, 2005; Strohminger and Nichols, 2014) Whereas those studies often focus on an extraordinary event (car crash, brain transplant, and incarnation) followed by a psychological trait change (loss of memory and moral change) we simplified our conditions by including everyday changes that might occur in one’s life while omitting the reference to a mediating variable (such as an extraordinary event or an underlying neurodegenerative cause, see Strohminger and Nichols, 2015). How would I regard myself after the change? And how would others regard me?”
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