Openness to Experience, Non-Conformity, and the Preference for Abstract Art

TLDR

Evolutionary theory suggests that aesthetic preferences arise from adaptive sensory and cognitive processes, so what people find beautiful is shaped by evolutionary pressures. The study aims to develop a personality and social attitude profile for individuals who favor abstract art. A sample of 104 college students completed openness, experience‑seeking, and social attitude questionnaires and rated their preference for 15 realistic, 15 ambiguous, and 15 abstract artworks. Results show that higher openness predicts preference for all art types, with the effect strengthening for abstract pieces, and that tolerance of political liberalism and drug use is associated with the strongest abstract art preference.

Abstract

Recent evolutionary theory has argued that what people find “beautiful” is not arbitrary, but rather has evolved over millions of years of hominid sensory, perceptual, and cognitive evolution. Sensations that have adaptive value (i.e., that enhance safety, survival, and reproduction) often become aesthetically preferred. One purpose of the current study was to present a personality and social attitude template for persons who prefer a relatively recent and generally unappreciated form of art, namely abstract art. One hundred and four college participants (68 female) completed personality (openness and experience seeking) and social attitude questionnaires and recorded their preference for 15 realistic, 15 ambiguous, and 15 abstract works of art. Results showed that open participants preferred every form of art presented, but that this difference increased as the art became more abstract. In addition, those with attitudes more tolerant of political liberalism and drug use preferred abstract art the most.