Vissers and Wagemans evaluated how people respond to photographs. They share that their work “focus[ed] on a varied set of 58 contemporary artistic photographs (selected by expert judges) and . . . examine[d] how 259 nonexperts aesthetically experience these photographs, whether contextual changes can impact their aesthetic preferences, and whether participants’ preferences relate to their emotional responses and how they were making meaning of the photographs. In general, participants’ aesthetic experiences varied greatly between photographs but they were robust against contextual changes (of other photographs or theme information). Emotional experience played a key role in participants’ preferences, with low preferences for photographs associated with negative emotions (e.g., blood, sickness, and pollution), and high preferences for photographs associated with positive emotions (e.g., nature and a street scene reminiscent of vacation). Making meaning of (what was in) the photograph was also important, and participants’ answers suggest that they did not always fully understand the photographs or integrate the photographs’ nuances into a coherent whole.”
Nathalie Vissers and Johan Wagemans. “Photographs That Repulse or Entice: Sense-Making and Emotional Experiencing of Artistic Photographs.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, in press, https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000478