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The role of gender and academic degree on preference for smooth curvature of abstract shapes
BACKGROUND: Preference for smooth contours occurs for a variety of visual stimuli. However, there are individual differences. Openness to experience, a trait associated with aesthetic appreciation, emotional sensitivity and abstract thinking, correlates with this preference. The evaluation of meanin...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7953868/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33732544 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10877 |
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author | Palumbo, Letizia Rampone, Giulia Bertamini, Marco |
author_facet | Palumbo, Letizia Rampone, Giulia Bertamini, Marco |
author_sort | Palumbo, Letizia |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Preference for smooth contours occurs for a variety of visual stimuli. However, there are individual differences. Openness to experience, a trait associated with aesthetic appreciation, emotional sensitivity and abstract thinking, correlates with this preference. The evaluation of meaningless stimuli entails automatic associations influenced by knowledge, intellectual interests and individual experiences which are diverse. However, it is difficult to capture this variability in studies restricted to Undergraduate students in Psychology with a prevalence of female participants. METHODS: Here we examined preference for curvature with 160 undergraduate students in Psychology, Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science, balanced for gender. Participants viewed abstract shapes varying for contour (angular vs. curved). The shapes presented variations in Vertices (10, 20, 30) and Concavity (30%, 40%, 50%) to increase complexity. Participants rated how much they liked each shape on a 0 (dislike) to 100 (like) scale. Furthermore, because students in pure Science disciplines present autistic-like traits as measured with the Autism Quotient (AQ), and there is evidence that individuals with autism respond positively to edgy abstract shapes, participants also completed the AQ. RESULTS: Overall participants preferred curved shapes to angular shapes. We confirmed past research showing that complexity played a key role, with simple shapes with less vertices (10 vertices) being preferred over shapes with larger number of vertices (20 and 30 vertices). Furthermore, simple shapes (10 vertices) were preferred more with more concavities (50%). Importantly, an interaction between academic degree and gender revealed that preference for smooth curvature was stronger for Psychology female participants. Science students scored higher than Psychology students on the AQ. Interestingly, multilevel analyses showed that the variability of AQ traits in the sample did not contribute to this interaction. The results are discussed in relation to theories of preference formation and individual differences. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7953868 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-79538682021-03-16 The role of gender and academic degree on preference for smooth curvature of abstract shapes Palumbo, Letizia Rampone, Giulia Bertamini, Marco PeerJ Psychiatry and Psychology BACKGROUND: Preference for smooth contours occurs for a variety of visual stimuli. However, there are individual differences. Openness to experience, a trait associated with aesthetic appreciation, emotional sensitivity and abstract thinking, correlates with this preference. The evaluation of meaningless stimuli entails automatic associations influenced by knowledge, intellectual interests and individual experiences which are diverse. However, it is difficult to capture this variability in studies restricted to Undergraduate students in Psychology with a prevalence of female participants. METHODS: Here we examined preference for curvature with 160 undergraduate students in Psychology, Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science, balanced for gender. Participants viewed abstract shapes varying for contour (angular vs. curved). The shapes presented variations in Vertices (10, 20, 30) and Concavity (30%, 40%, 50%) to increase complexity. Participants rated how much they liked each shape on a 0 (dislike) to 100 (like) scale. Furthermore, because students in pure Science disciplines present autistic-like traits as measured with the Autism Quotient (AQ), and there is evidence that individuals with autism respond positively to edgy abstract shapes, participants also completed the AQ. RESULTS: Overall participants preferred curved shapes to angular shapes. We confirmed past research showing that complexity played a key role, with simple shapes with less vertices (10 vertices) being preferred over shapes with larger number of vertices (20 and 30 vertices). Furthermore, simple shapes (10 vertices) were preferred more with more concavities (50%). Importantly, an interaction between academic degree and gender revealed that preference for smooth curvature was stronger for Psychology female participants. Science students scored higher than Psychology students on the AQ. Interestingly, multilevel analyses showed that the variability of AQ traits in the sample did not contribute to this interaction. The results are discussed in relation to theories of preference formation and individual differences. PeerJ Inc. 2021-03-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7953868/ /pubmed/33732544 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10877 Text en ©2021 Palumbo et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Psychiatry and Psychology Palumbo, Letizia Rampone, Giulia Bertamini, Marco The role of gender and academic degree on preference for smooth curvature of abstract shapes |
title | The role of gender and academic degree on preference for smooth curvature of abstract shapes |
title_full | The role of gender and academic degree on preference for smooth curvature of abstract shapes |
title_fullStr | The role of gender and academic degree on preference for smooth curvature of abstract shapes |
title_full_unstemmed | The role of gender and academic degree on preference for smooth curvature of abstract shapes |
title_short | The role of gender and academic degree on preference for smooth curvature of abstract shapes |
title_sort | role of gender and academic degree on preference for smooth curvature of abstract shapes |
topic | Psychiatry and Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7953868/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33732544 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10877 |
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