22 Personality and aesthetic experiences

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1 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:41:57 Page Number: Personality and aesthetic experiences Viren Swami and Adrian Furnham Gustav Theodor Fechner is widely respected as the founding father of psychophysics, but toward the end of his career, Fechner also made a significant contribution to the psychology of aesthetics. In contrast to the philosophies of aesthetics of his day, Fechner argued for an aesthetics from below whose goal was to investigate art and aesthetics empirically and objectively. Of course, structural approaches to the study of aesthetics can be found as far back as the works of the ancient Greeks, but Fechner s interest in the Golden Ratio (Fechner, 1865, 1871, 1876) and the authenticity of the Holbein Madonna (Fechner, 1876) ushered in a new empirical approach to beauty and its elements. In his work on the aesthetics of rectangular figures, for example, Fechner (1876) laid out ten rectangles of different height-to-width ratios and simply asked participants to say which they liked the most. To his surprise, he found a preference among his participants for rectangles possessing the proportions of the Golden Section. These results have proved difficult to replicate, however (for reviews, see Höge, 1995; McManus, 1980; McWhinnie, 1986), with most scholars believing that Fechner s results were anomalous (Green, 1995; Höge, 1997). Fechner s more lasting contribution to the study of aesthetics lays elsewhere. Through his method of choice that is, asking individuals to simply state which of a range of stimuli they prefer Fechner opened the door to the study of individual aesthetic preferences (McManus, Cook and Hunt, 2010). This focus on the individual is clearly reflected in contemporary discussions of the psychology of aesthetics (Jacobsen, 2010), where aesthetic experiences are acknowledged to be subject to a complex network involving the stimulus, situational aspects and aspects of a person. For example, Jacobsen (2006) has proposed a framework for the psychological study of aesthetics that adopts seven different vantage points that are not mutually exclusive. These seven pillars are: the mind (e.g., emotions and attitudinal dispositions), the body (neurocognitive aspects), ipsichronia (cultural, subcultural and social processes), diachronia (biological and cultural evolution), the content of the stimulus (art, music, literature, food and so on), the situation in which aesthetic experiences take place and the person. Within this framework, aspects associated with the person primarily relate to personality and inter-individual differences that influence aesthetic experiences and behaviors (Jacobsen, 2006; Jacobsen and Höfel, 2002). People buy paintings 540

2 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:41:58 Page Number: 541 Personality and aesthetic experiences 541 and music and poetry books; they may use art as a form of mood change or therapy; they pay and travel to visit concerts; they attend lectures on modern architecture; they also create art in many forms whether by being a member of an amateur choir or attending a short course on watercolor painting. In short, many of us on a daily basis make aesthetic choices and show preferences (Heinrichs and Cupchik, 1985). This focus on the individual does not seem misplaced: in one study, Jacobsen (2004) obtained aesthetic judgments of formal graphic patterns from non-artist participants and derived both group and individual models that reflected strategies of aesthetic judgments. Jacobsen (2004) reported that, while the group model (based on average data) accounted for half of the participants strategies, the individual models provided more precise accounts. Such data patterns highlight the importance of considering individual differences in aesthetic experiences. Or as Fechner put it, es muss sich also doch darüber streiten lassen it must thus be possible to argue about taste (translation from Jacobsen, 2004). In this chapter, we present an overview of the psychology of aesthetics from the point of view of personality and individual differences. While we acknowledge the need to approach the study of aesthetics from different perspectives, the idiographic approach adopted by differential psychologists seeks to unmask individual differences in aesthetic experiences that may be camouflaged in some nomothetic studies (Jacobsen, 2010). Here, we begin by reviewing the evidence of associations between personality and individual difference traits and aesthetic experiences as a function of stimulus content, before discussing individual differences in aesthetic behaviors. Finally, we discuss the main issues and concerns facing differential psychologists interested in the psychology of aesthetics and consider directions for future research. Early studies Aesthetic experiences and the visual arts It may surprise some to learn that the study of the relationship between personality and aesthetic experiences has a long history, although much of this work has focused on preferences for different forms of visual arts. In one of the earliest of these studies, Burt (1933, Chapter 15) asked participants (non-artists and art experts) to rank an assortment of picture postcards in order of preference. A factor analysis of the correlations between ratings pointed to the existence of a general factor of aesthetic judgments, which was applicable to all participants. Burt also found bipolar factors for different types of aesthetic preferences that he suggested were related to inter-individual differences in personality. This work was later extended by Eysenck (1940, 1941), who presented participants with a range of pictorial stimuli and asked them to rate these according to their preferences. Based on a factor analysis of the data, he extracted two factors,

3 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:41:58 Page Number: viren swami and adrian furnham which he called the T factor (a general factor of good taste) and the K factor (a bipolar factor that tended to distinguish between preferences for modern, impressionistic and colorful art from older, more traditional and less colorful art). Eysenck also presented that the K factor was associated with a number of bipolar differential traits, including radicalism versus conservatism, color versus form preference, and extraversion versus introversion. Other early works similarly suggested the existence of a general factor and bipolar factors in aesthetic experiences (Barron, 1953; Green and Pickford, 1968; Peel, 1945), although much of this research was hampered by the lack of empirical trait taxonomies. By the mid-1960s, a wide range of individual difference traits had been associated with aesthetic experiences and judgments. For example, in one study, Child (1965) had participants rate more than a hundred pairs of pictures that had been chosen so that each pair was the same in type and subject matter but different in aesthetic value. He reported that aesthetic judgments were positively associated with traits such as tolerance of complexity, trait anxiety, verbal aptitude and a visual preference for baroque over classical art. Child also reported that there was a negative correlation between aesthetic judgments and viscerotomania, or a love of comfort and relaxation. Other early studies compared preferences for modern (abstract) art versus traditional or representational art. A preference for modern art was found to be associated with individual difference traits including conservatism (Wilson, Ausman and Matthews, 1973), field dependence (Tobacyk, Bailey and Myers, 1979; Tobacyk, Myers and Bailey, 1981), aesthetic versus religious value (Knapp and Wulff, 1963), external locus of control (Juhasz and Paxson, 1978) and dogmatism (Frumkin, 1963). However, much of this work remained very limited: reported associations between aesthetic preferences and individual difference traits were sometimes equivocal and, in the absence of an underlying taxonomy of personality, much of this research was piecemeal. Openness to experience and the visual arts A major breakthrough in the study of aesthetics from an idiographic point of view was reached once the Big Five framework of personality traits emerged as a robust model for understanding personality at the broadest level of abstraction (Costa and McCrae, 1992; Goldberg, 1993). The Big Five framework is a descriptive, hierarchical model consisting of five bipolar traits, namely Agreeableness (a tendency to be helpful, cooperative and sympathetic toward others), Conscientiousness (a tendency to be disciplined, organized and achievement oriented), Neuroticism (a tendency to lack emotional stability and impulse control), Extraversion (a tendency to be sociable and assertive) and Openness to Experience (a tendency to be intellectually curious and show a preference for novelty and variety). In this view, it is suggested that most individual differences in personality can be classified into these five overarching domains, which have been shown to have strong predictive validity in relation to a range of different real-world outcomes (see Chamorro-Premuzic, 2007).

4 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:41:59 Page Number: 543 Personality and aesthetic experiences 543 Since the 1990s, a growing body of research has examined the associations between aesthetic judgments, typically operationalized through ratings of different styles of painting, and the Big Five personality traits. The most consistent finding from this research is a positive correlation between Openness to Experience and a preference for visual arts in general (Chamorro-Premuzic et al., 2010; Chamorro- Premuzic and Furnham, 2004; Chamorro-Premuzic, Reimers et al., 2009; Feist and Brady, 2004; Furnham and Avison, 1997; Furnham and Chamorro-Premuzic, 2004; Furnham and Walker, 2001a, 2001b; Rawlings, 2000; Rawlings et al., 1998a), with correlations typically ranging between.20 and.30. In addition, at least one study has reported that Openness is positively associated with aesthetic attitudes, including an appreciation of aesthetic quality and the belief that art can be appreciated even in the absence of complete emotional understanding of an artwork (McManus and Furnham, 2006). In addition, Openness has been shown to be positively correlated with nonconventional forms of art, such as abstract and modern art as compared to traditional or representational art (Chamorro-Premuzic, Reimers et al., 2009; Furnham and Avison, 1997; Furnham and Rao, 2002; Swami and Furnham, in press). An exemplar of the former finding is a study by Swami and Furnham (in press), in which participants rated the aesthetic appeal (a personal like or dislike) of nineteen paintings by Piet Mondrian and completed a battery of scales measuring their personalities and individual difference traits. The results of this study showed that, of the Big Five personality traits, only Openness to Experience was significantly correlated (r ¼.32) with ratings of the aesthetic appeal of Mondrian s paintings. Other works have also suggested that more open individuals show a lower preference for Impressionist paintings (Chamorro-Premuzic, Reimers et al., 2009) and for neutral or natural paintings (Rawlings et al., 1998b). These findings have led some researchers to suggest that Openness is a central component of the artistic personality. For example, McCrae and Costa (1997, p. 825) have suggested artists can be considered primer examples of individuals high in openness to experience. Similarly, Chamorro-Premuzic, Reimers et al. (2009, p. 503) have noted that open individuals have qualities that are harmonious with the notions of abstract art being more modern, untraditional, and depicting subject matter through intrinsic qualities, rather than literal representational forms. That is, the trait of openness to experience includes lower-order characteristics associated with imagination, creativity, liberalism, non-conventionalism and anti-authoritarianism, and these traits, in turn, are thought to translate into a preference for more complex, contemporary and challenging visual artistic compositions. Other Big Five traits have also been associated with preferences for visual arts, although the relationships have tended to be weaker and more equivocal than those with Openness. In terms of Extraversion, for example, Eysenck (1941) suggested that extraverts showed a preference for modern over traditional paintings (see also Burt, 1939), although Cardinet (1958) reported that it was introverts who showed a stronger preference for modern and abstract paintings compared with extraverts.

5 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:41:59 Page Number: viren swami and adrian furnham More recently, Extraversion has been associated with an appreciation of aesthetic quality (McManus, 2006), but has also been related to aesthetic judgments in both positive and negative directions depending on the task used (Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham, 2004; Chamorro-Premuzic, Reimers et al., 2009; Furnham and Chamorro-Premuzic, 2004; Swami and Furnham, in press). Other relevant work showed no significant association between introversion and tolerance for representational distortion in images (Robertoux, Carlier and Chaguiboff, 1971). In a similar vein, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness have both been positively associated with a preference for representational art (Furnham and Walker, 2001a) and negatively with abstract art (Furnham and Avison, 1997; Furnham and Rao, 2002), although the correlations have tended to be weak (additionally, some studies report no significant associations; Swami and Furnham, in press). In addition, several studies have reported a negative association between Conscientiousness and general visual art preferences (Chamorro-Premuzic, Reimers et al., 2009; McManus and Furnham, 2006). Finally, Neuroticism has been associated with a preference for abstract art (Furnham and Walker, 2001b) and may also explain the reported association between aesthetic judgment and anxiety (Child, 1962), such that individuals with greater interest in aesthetic value may be more willing to recognize and report unpleasant emotions (Furnham and Avison, 1997). In short, then, while associations between Openness to Experience and aesthetic experiences in relation to the visual arts are relatively robust, associations with the other Big Five factors have tended to be more equivocal. More than this, the latter associations have generally tended to be weak and are often no longer significant when moderating variables, such as cognitive ability and familiarity with artworks, are included in statistical analyses. Recently, Chamorro-Premuzic et al. (2010) have suggested that one reason why the Big Five factors, with the exception of Openness, may not show strong or consistent relationships with visual art preference is because studies have tended to classify compositions based on art historical conventions. However, such conventions may not be meaningful when interpreted in terms of the Big Five personality traits. Rather, Chamorro-Premuzic and colleagues (2010) have suggested that, to the extent that visual art elicits perceptual, emotional and intellectual responses that are highly subjective, it may make more sense to classify artistic styles a posteriori based on consensual ratings of compositions. In their study, these authors proposed two trait-congruent factors, namely, emotional valence (the ability of a composition to elicit arousal and positive or negative emotions on the part of the observer) and perceived complexity (observer perceptions of the aesthetic complexity of a composition), which they expected would result in stronger associations between the Big Five traits and aesthetic preferences. In their study, these authors did report stronger associations between the Big Five personality traits and preferences for compositions when the latter were classified based on consensual perceptions of emotional valence (happy versus sad) and complexity (simple versus complex), although Openness to Experience remained the strongest predictor once additional demographic variables were included in their analyses. More specifically,

6 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:41:59 Page Number: 545 Personality and aesthetic experiences 545 Openness was positively associated with a preference for emotionally positive (e.g., Mark Rothko s Orange and Yellow) and complex paintings (e.g., Francis Bacon s Head VI). Issues and limitations Although the relationship between Openness and aesthetic experiences seems robust, it should be noted that by far the majority of studies have focused on the higher-order factor of Openness, which may mask more precise associations between its lower-order facets and aesthetic experiences. More specifically, Openness includes six facets, of which aesthetics measures an individual s sensitivity to, and interest in, art and beauty (McCrae and Costa, 1997), and it is this facet that has been found to correlate most strongly with artistic interests and preferences for paintings (Rawlings et al., 1998a; Rawlings, Vidal and Furnham, 2000). Nevertheless, other facets of Openness, including ideas (the tendency to be intellectually curious) and values (the tendency to reexamine traditional social, religious and political values), have also been associated with aesthetic preferences (Rawlings et al., 2000). Others have suggested that the association between Openness to Experience and aesthetic preferences may be predicated on traits that share conceptual similarities with, but are independent of, Openness. For example, Chamorro-Premuzic et al. (2010) showed that a measure of unconventionality defined as an individual difference trait reflecting the tendency to hold unusual or eccentric attitudes and values to prefer non-conventional activities was significantly associated with preferences for visual compositions. This is particularly important as studies have suggested that Openness and unconventionality are related but different constructs (Ashton, Lee and Goldberg, 2004). Other relevant research has suggested that there are significant associations between aesthetic preferences for some forms of visual art and tolerance of ambiguity (Furnham and Avison, 1997), although associations have tended to be weak. In a similar vein, there remains some debate about the interrelationships between aesthetic preferences, Openness to Experience and the trait of sensation-seeking. The latter refers to an individual s desire to seek out varied, complex, novel and intense experiences, and the willingness to take risks for the sake of such experiences (Zuckerman, 1979). Defined in this way, sensation-seeking shares many similar lower-order facets with Openness (indeed the two traits are correlated at r ¼.54; Zuckerman, 1994), and it remains unclear whether and to what extent the two traits independently predict aesthetic experiences. Alternatively, it may be that both traits share common lower-order facets that drive the associations with aesthetic preferences. Certainly, there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that sensation-seeking is positively associated with the preference for complex designs (Looft and Baranowski, 1971; Rawlings et al., 1998a; Zuckerman, 2006; Zuckerman et al., 1972; Zuckerman, Neary and Brustman, 1970), non-traditional visual art forms

7 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:42:00 Page Number: viren swami and adrian furnham such as Surrealism and abstract art (Furnham and Avison, 1997; Furnham and Bunyan, 1988; Tobacyk et al., 1981) and different patterns of color preferences (Rosenbloom, 2006). In addition, sensation-seeking is known to be associated with the content of paintings: Zuckerman, Ulrich and McLaughlin (1993) reported that, when viewing a selection of nineteenth-century paintings, high sensation-seekers showed a stronger preference for paintings that were high in tension. Other similar works have reported that sensation-seeking is positively associated with preferences for emotionally charged images (Rawlings, 2003; Zaleski, 1984) as well as grotesque art (Ruch and Malcherek, 2009). Nevertheless, it should also be noted that associations between aesthetic preferences and sensation-seeking have tended to be weaker than those with Openness (Furnham and Avison, 1997; Furnham and Walker, 2001a; Rawlings et al., 1998a, 2000) and some studies have also reported no significant correlations between sensation-seeking and aesthetic preferences (Swami and Furnham, in press; see also Griscom and Palmer, 2010). One limitation that may help explain these equivocal findings is the fact that different studies have measured sensationseeking using different scales, which makes it difficult to compare results across studies (Furnham and Walker, 2001a). In particular, it appears to be the thrill- and adventure-seeking facets of sensation-seeking, which measure a tendency to engage in activities that provide unusual sensations (Zuckerman, 1994), that shows the strongest relationship with aesthetic experiences. Finally, it should be noted that the variables reviewed above tend to only explain a relatively small proportion of the variance in aesthetic experiences and, for some types of stimuli, individual difference traits may not significantly predict preferences. For example, McManus et al. (2010) have shown that, although there are varied individual preferences for rectangles, these preferences are not associated with the Big Five personality traits, tolerance of ambiguity, schizotypy, need for cognition or aesthetic activities. In addition, studies are only beginning to examine the interrelationships between factors such as the Big Five personality traits and variables such as participant demographics, previous experience of art and familiarity with works of art (Chamorro-Premuzic et al., 2010; Furnham and Walker, 2001a; Swami and Furnham, in press). If, as seems likely, there are complex interrelationships between these factors and individual difference traits, then more sophisticated designs along with more sophisticated statistical analyses will be needed to describe more accurately the relationships between individual difference traits and aesthetic experiences. A brief note on art judgment Before moving on to consider the relationships between personality and the nonvisual arts, it is worth briefly mentioning some relevant literature on art judgment. Beginning in the 1920s, there was a flurry of activity with psychologists attempting to devise reliable and valuable tests of arts judgment, which was considered to be a measure of ability. These include the Meier Art Judgment Test (Carroll and Enrich,

8 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:42:00 Page Number: 547 Personality and aesthetic experiences ), the Graves Judgement Art Test (Graves, 1948) and the Maitland Graves Design Judgement Test (Graves, 1948). The latter, for example, comprises ninety judgments on either two or three black and white designs and has been extensively studied in relation to its validity (Eysenck, 1972; Eysenck and Castle, 1971). While some studies have suggested that test scores discriminate between artists and nonartists (e.g., Uduehi, 1996) and that experts show a high degree of agreement on preferred design (Gotz and Gotz, 1974), others have found more equivocal findings (Eysenck, 1970). Critics have further postulated that many of these tests are anachronistic because of changing views of aesthetic principles (Liu, 1990). Nevertheless, art-type tests are still used in attempts to measure creativity. One such test is the Barron Welsh Test (Barron and Welsh, 1952), which requires participants simply to indicate whether they like or dislike eighty-six abstract pictures. A number of studies have used this measure as a reliable index of creativity (Furnham, Zhang and Chamorro-Premuzic, 2006). Importantly, various studies have shown that personality traits, notably psychoticism and Openness (Furnham, 1999; Furnham and Bachtiar, 2008), predict creativity, which in turn may be related to various aesthetic experiences. Although very few scholars now retain an interest in art judgment tests, renewed attention to the relationships between creativity and art preferences may prove useful for the extant literature. Aesthetic experiences in other domains As we noted earlier, the study of the relationships between personality and aesthetic experiences has tended to be dominated by research on different forms of visual art, primarily paintings and simple designs. Beginning in the 1990s, however, there has been a revival of interest among differential psychologists in the study of aesthetics relating to other stimuli. In this section, we provide a brief overview of the study of individual differences in the aesthetic experience of music, literature and film. It should be noted at the outset, however, that much of this work remains in its infancy and the available literature is not nearly as fully developed as that on visual art. Music As with the study of aesthetic experience in relation to the visual arts, the study of individual differences in the aesthetics of music has a long history (e.g., Cattell and Anderson, 1953; Downey, 1897; Shumaker, 1928). Beginning in the 1950s, however, this research experienced something of a lull, partly because of the absence of an overarching theoretical framework of personality that could unify the field, and partly as a result of the dominance of research that focused on demographic factors, such as ethnicity, age and, particularly, social class (see Frith, 1981; Gans, 1974; see also Von Appen, 2007). Nevertheless, there has been a revival of interest in the aesthetics of music from a differential

9 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:42:01 Page Number: viren swami and adrian furnham perspective since the 1980s, particularly following the development of suitable theoretical explanations that account for associations between music preferences and personality factors. The most important of such theoretical frameworks is the uses and gratification approach (Rosengren, Wenner and Palmgreen, 1985), which focuses on the motives for music consumption. More specifically, it argues that individuals prefer and select certain types of music because they have certain personality characteristics that the music satisfies (Arnett, 1995; Arnett, Larson and Offer, 1995; Larson, 1995; see also Chen, Zhou and Bryant, 2007). For example, open individuals, who have a desire for intellectual stimulation and novel aesthetic experiences, would be expected to show preference for complex types of music. In addition, music selections may also serve to fulfil physiologically based needs (Eysenck, 1990; Zuckerman, 1979). In this view, extraverts, who have low cortical arousal, would be expected to select music types that raise their arousal, an idea first proposed by Berlyne (1960). Based on these perspectives, the past two decades have witnessed a revival of interest in the aesthetics of music from a differential perspective (Dollinger, 1993; McCown et al., 1997; Robinson, Weaver and Zillman, 1996) and it is now recognized that there are associations among music preferences and personality characteristics (Pearson and Dollinger, 2002; Rentfrow and McDonald, 2009; Schwartz and Fouts, 2003). In one of the most comprehensive studies to date, Rentfrow and Gosling (2003) first sought to establish the major dimensions of music preferences using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Based on their data, they identified four dominant music-preference dimensions, namely: (1) reflective and complex (defined by the blues, jazz, classical and folk music); (2) intense and rebellious (rock, alternative and heavy metal); (3) upbeat and conventional (country, soundtrack, religious and pop music); and (4) energetic and rhythmic (rap, hip-hop, soul and funk, and electronica and dance music). Rentfrow and Gosling (2003) then examined the relationships between these musical dimensions and the Big Five personality traits. They reported that a preference for reflective and complex music and intense and rebellious music was positively associated with the personality factor of Openness to Experience. By contrast, a preference for upbeat and conventional music was positively related to Extraversion, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, but negatively related to Openness. Finally, a preference for energetic and rhythmic music was positively correlated with Extraversion and Agreeableness. A recent longitudinal replication of this study with Dutch adolescents generally confirmed these associations between personality and music preferences, and further showed that personality predicted changes in music preferences over a 3-year period (Delsing et al., 2008). Much less research has focused on music preferences and other differential factors. Several studies have examined the associations between music preferences and sensation-seeking, although evidence of significant associations is mixed. Thus, while some studies suggest a positive relationship with a preference for rock music and a negative relationship with soundtrack and pop music (Little

10 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:42:01 Page Number: 549 Personality and aesthetic experiences 549 and Zuckerman, 1986; Rawlings et al., 1998a, 2000), other works suggest no significant association (Glasgow, Cartier and Wilson, 1985). Other works have focused on the associations between personality factors and the functions and purposes of listening to music (Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham, 2007; Chamorro-Premuzic, Swami et al., 2009), although it is unclear to what extent such studies are directly relevant to the study of aesthetics. Books and magazines Like the above bodies of work, differential psychologists have only begun to give the aesthetics of literature focused attention in the last decade or so. Prior to this, much of the available literature had centered on reading preferences as a function of participant demographics (e.g., Asselin, 2003; Clark and Foster, 2005; Hall and Coles, 1999) and based on Bourdieu s (1984) concept of homology cultural (Kraaykamp and Dijkstra, 1999; Torche, 2007; Van Rees, Vermunt and Verboord, 1999; Zavisca, 2005) and socioeconomic status (Kraaykamp, 2002; Kraaykamp et al., 2007; Van Eijck, 2001). Other studies have examined associations between reading preferences and individual differences, including psychological conservatism (Gillies and Campbell, 1985; McAllister and Anderson, 1991), with studies indicating an association between this variable and traditional forms of poetry and text. Much more work has focused on the Big Five factors, with Openness to Experience again emerging as an important predictor. Thus, in one early study, Finn (1997) reported that higher Openness was positively related to time spent reading for pleasure. More recently, Kraaykamp and Van Eijck (2005) reported that Openness was positively associated with a preference for more complex and stimulating genres, particularly literary novels and literature in a foreign language (as opposed to, say, romantic novels). Two other studies have similarly reported that Openness is more strongly associated with a preference for culture-related texts and science-related materials (Schutte and Malouff, 2004; Tirre and Dixit, 1995). Taken together, these studies are generally consistent with the evidence reviewed above that open individuals show a preference for unconventional, intellectual or difficult aesthetic experiences. Conversely, associations between reading preferences and the other Big Five traits are more equivocal. For example, where Finn (1997) reported that Extraversion was negatively associated with time spent reading for pleasure, other studies have reported no significant correlation (Kraaykamp and Van Eijck, 2005; Schutte and Malouff, 2004). In addition, significant negative associations have been reported between a preference for literary novels and Agreeableness and Conscientiousness (Kraaykamp and Van Eijck, 2005). Finally, Schutte and Malouf (2004) also reported that Conscientiousness was positively associated with a preference for science-related reading matter. In general, however, these associations have tended to be much weaker than those between reading preferences and Openness.

11 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:42:02 Page Number: viren swami and adrian furnham To date, the vast majority of the literature on personality and reading preference has focused on cross-genre preferences and there remains a serious dearth of studies examining preferences within a single genre. In one recent study that sought to overcome this limitation (Swami et al., 2012), experimenters had participants read ten excerpts of exemplar Surrealist texts (e.g., Comte de Lautréamont s Maldoror) and rate these for aesthetic preference and familiarity. The results of this study indicated that, controlling for familiarity with the texts, a stronger preference for the Surrealist excerpts was positively associated with sensation-seeking (r ¼.31) and Openness (r ¼.13). There were also significant associations between preferences for the texts and facets of tolerance of ambiguity, though these variables did not emerge as significant predictors once the effects of sensation-seeking and Openness were taken into account. Film Very few studies have examined the associations between personality and aesthetic experiences related to film or television. The research that is available adopts the uses and gratification approach in suggesting that individuals prefer and select film or television programs based on needs that they fulfil. For example, there is some evidence to suggest that younger individuals are more likely to watch television for companionship, whereas older individuals are more likely to watch television to acquire information (Potts, Dedmon and Halford, 1996). Similarly, at least one study has suggested that individuals who score highly on Neuroticism are more likely to watch television for entertainment and companionship purposes than emotionally stable individuals (Weaver, 2003). To date, however, studies have generally not explicitly examined associations between personality and film or television preferences. Part of the problem may be that it has proved difficult to reduce the wide range of different film and television genres into coherent factor structures (cf. Gunter and Furnham, 1983). For example, two studies that have attempted to do so have arrived at very different structures (Hirschman, 1985; North and Hargreaves, 2007). Nor did these studies examine associations between the factors that were derived and personality variables. An alternative approach would be to focus on preferences for film from specific genres, which is what was accomplished in a study by Swami and colleagues (2010). In this study, the experimenters had participants rate for aesthetic preference and familiarity a set of ten clips of Surrealist film (e.g., Luis Buñuel s Un Chien Andalou). Results of the study indicated that preference for the film clips was associated with Openness (r ¼.37), sensation-seeking (r ¼.36) and a facet of tolerance of ambiguity (r ¼.53). Cross-medium preferences One of the main limitations of the above research is that studies have typically examined aesthetic preferences in only one medium. More specifically, it was unclear whether individuals who show a preference for, say, unconventional

12 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:42:02 Page Number: 551 Personality and aesthetic experiences 551 literature would also show a similar preference for unconventional music or film (Rentfrow, Goldberg and Zilca, 2011). The difficulty in classifying aesthetic preferences across media is that such preferences can be measured at different levels of abstraction, from the superordinate or low-order subordinate (Rentfrow and Gosling, 2003). Although there is some evidence that preferences for subordinate exemplars correlate highly with preferences for genre labels (Rentfrow and McDonald, 2009; see also Swami et al., 2010), only one study has examined preferences at the superordinate level (Rentfrow et al., 2011). In this study, the experimenters initially developed a genre-based entertainmentpreference measure consisting of 108 genres in four primary domains (music, books and magazines, film and television). Based on a factor analysis of preference ratings for these 108 genres, the authors extracted five factors, which they labeled Communal (genres that were lighthearted, uncomplicated, and popular and focused on people and relationships), Aesthetic (genres that were creative, abstract, cultured, dense, and demanding ), Dark (genres that were characterised by intensity, edginess, and hedonism ), Thrilling (genres that included themes of action, adventure, suspense, and fantasy ) and Cerebral (an information-oriented factor that can be characterized by factual information about persons, places, or things ) (Rentfrow et al., 2011, p. 242). When these factors were correlated with participants Big Five scores, the results indicated that individuals who preferred the Communal entertainment factor were pleasant, empathic, lighthearted, unadventurous, uncomplicated, and relationship oriented. Those who preferred the Aesthetic factor were abstract, dense, and demanding, tend to be creative, calm, introspective, and in touch with their emotions. Additionally, those who preferred the Dark factor were defiant, reckless, and immodest, whereas those who preferred the Cerebral factor were enterprising, innovative, self-assured, and detail oriented. Finally, there did not appear to be a consistent set of correlations between the Big Five and preferences for the Thrilling factor. In general, this set of findings was argued to be consistent with the view that individuals seek out entertainment that reflects and reinforces aspects of their personalities (Rentfrow et al., 2011, p. 252). Personality and aesthetic behaviors The evidence we have reviewed thus far suggests that there are some clear links between personality and individual difference traits and aesthetic preferences, but there is also a small body of research that has postulated similar links with aesthetic behaviors. In these studies, aesthetic behaviors are typically defined as any behavior in which an individual actively engages with aesthetic activities, such as purchasing art, buying novels or visiting galleries (Chamorro-Premuzic, Furnham and Reimers, 2007). In examining the literature, two main strands of research stand out: those that have examined the personality profiles of individuals at the point of contact (e.g., those visiting galleries) and those that have relied on self-reported aesthetic behaviors.

13 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:42:03 Page Number: viren swami and adrian furnham The stem of the former branch of research is often said to be a seminal study of nearly 10,000 visitors to European art galleries and museums (Bourdieu, Darbel and Schhapper, 1991). In addition to clear influences of education and socioeconomic status, the study also showed that there was a strong interrelationship between different modes of aesthetic behavior, such that those visitors were also more likely to go to concerts, theaters and the cinema. In a more recent study, Mastandrea, Bartoli and Bove (2007) compared the profiles of 500 visitors to two art museums in Italy, namely the Borghese Museum of Ancient Art in Rome (which hosts a collection of paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance, baroque and neoclassical periods) and the Guggenheim Collection of Contemporary Art in Venice (which houses a collection of European and American modern art). Visitors to the two galleries were asked to complete a questionnaire that explored their preferences for different types of art, their satisfaction with their visit as well as reasons for their enjoyment of the visit, and future intention to visit museums. Based on the data collected, Mastandrea et al. (2007) suggested that the visitors to the two museums showed very different profiles. On the one hand, visitors to the Borghese Museum tended not to be interested in museums in general (they were visiting mainly due to the fame of the Borghese), although they did tend to emphasize a motivation to gain knowledge and understanding over simple entertainment. On the other hand, visitors to the Guggenheim were more familiar with, and were more likely to visit, art museums and galleries. In addition, visitors to the Guggenheim tended to value emotional outcomes and pleasure-seeking over knowledge acquisition. In a more recent study, Mastandrea, Bartoli and Bove (2009) replicated their earlier work with two museums in Rome that had a much lower public profile than the Borghese or Guggenheim and that would be expected to have been visited by individuals with a genuine interest in art. Specifically, they asked visitors to the Braschi Museum for Ancient Art and the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art to complete measures of art knowledge and preferences as well as measures of the Big Five and sensation-seeking. The results of the study indicated that, among other things, visitors to the Braschi were more likely to emphasize cultural enrichment, whereas those at the National Gallery were more likely to emphasize the pleasure they felt during the visit. In terms of the individual difference traits, the authors reported no significant between-group differences on Openness to Experience or on sensation-seeking, although both sets of visitors scored highly on these traits. A second branch of research has examined associations between personality traits and aesthetic behaviors, where the latter are self-reported. In an important study, McManus and Furnham (2006) examined demographic and personality predictors of engagement with a range of aesthetic activities, including engaging with performance art (going to the theater, going to classical or modern dance and acting), engaging with visual arts (going to museums and art galleries, reading about art and drawing or painting), engaging with literature (reading novels,

14 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:42:03 Page Number: 553 Personality and aesthetic experiences 553 non-fiction and poetry), engaging with classical music (going to performances and the opera and playing a musical instrument) and engaging with popular music (listening to pop music, going to concerts or discos and going dancing). Of the personality variables included in their study, they reported that Openness was positively associated with engagement in these activities, whereas there were negative associations with Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. More broadly, engagement with aesthetic activities was found to be more strongly associated with Openness than with social class, age and gender. Other studies have looked more narrowly at the associations between personality and gallery visits. For example, Chamorro-Premuzic et al. (2010) have reported that Openness to Experience is significantly associated with frequency of visits to art galleries (the same study also found that frequency of gallery visits was positively associated with preferences for different styles of painting). Similarly, Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham (2004) reported that Openness was positively associated with art experience, where the latter was defined as activities related to, interests with and knowledge of art. Finally, Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham (2005) found that Openness was positively associated with self-reported frequency of visits to art galleries and the purchasing of art. A final area of research is worth mentioning, despite the relative dearth of work in the area. Recently, some scholars have discussed the concept of aesthetic chills, a feeling of goose bumps and shivers down the spine (Goldstein, 1980), typically the result of some kind of aesthetic experience, such as listening to music (Grewe, Kopiez and Altenmüller, 2009; see also Chapter 21, this volume). At least one study has reported that individuals who are high in Openness are much more likely to self-report experiencing aesthetic chills (Silvia and Nusbaum, 2011). This is consistent with cross-cultural research suggesting that experiencing chills when reading poetry or viewing art is a robust marker of Openness to Experience (McCrae, 2007). In addition, there is also some evidence to suggest that individuals who are more knowledgeable about art are more likely to experience chills. Conclusion Overall, the evidence we have reviewed in this chapter points quite conclusively to the Big Five personality factor of Openness to Experience as a central component of what Chamorro-Premuzic et al. (2007) have termed the artistic personality. It seems likely that the imagination, curiosity and creativity associated with higher openness drives a greater proclivity for aesthetic experiences. Of course, this is not to deny the role played by other traits, such as sensation-seeking, in shaping aesthetic experiences. Nor does the perspective we have relied on in this chapter deny the importance of other person-related factors, such as age and socioeconomic status. Nevertheless, it does appear to be the case that personality generally, and Openness more specifically, have an important role in determining aesthetic experiences.

15 Date:13/6/14 Time:13:42:04 Page Number: viren swami and adrian furnham Even so, there are a number of ways in which this field could be moved forward in future research. First, it is notable that there has not been any real consistency in the measurement of aesthetic experience. For example, different research groups have used different central measures to measure superordinate aesthetic experiences (e.g., McManus and Furnham, 2006; Rentfrow et al., 2011), which makes cross-study comparisons somewhat difficult. In addition, there remains no widely accepted measure of aesthetic behaviors, and many studies continue to use singleitem measures with uncertain validity (e.g., Chamorro-Premuzic et al., 2010). The development of Smith and Smith s (2006) Aesthetic Fluency Scale is certainly a welcome development, although the scale provides a limited, self-report measure of knowledge about the arts. Second, there remains a need to broaden the scope of future research to examine in detail the associations between personality and media other than the visual arts. For instance, although there is now a growing body of research focused on music and reading, there remains a dearth of research focused specifically on film and television. In addition, there is still no literature that specifically examines aesthetic preferences in relation to less mainstream art forms, such as dance and performance art as well as other aspects of aesthetics, such as architecture and design (e.g., Cook and Furnham, 2012), food, machinery and vehicles, habitats, and objects of everyday life. There is also scope to examine the reviewed associations and non-western art (e.g., Swami, 2009). Although it might be expected that the associations with personality observed with other media will be replicated in future research, empirical data are still needed to ascertain the validity of such assumptions. Third, it will be important for future research to consider other individual difference traits that may be associated with aesthetic experiences. For example, although there is some evidence that cognitive ability is associated with aesthetic preferences (Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham, 2004), more in-depth research is needed to explicate this finding. Similarly, there is some recent evidence to suggest that a motive for sensory pleasure a general disposition to enjoy and pursue pleasant nature-related experiences and avoid unpleasant nature-related experiences is associated with aesthetic experiences independently of Openness (Eisenberger et al., 2010), although more research is needed in this area. Other traits that may benefit from further attention include tolerance of ambiguity, schizotypy, need for cognition, empathy and motivations to engage with aesthetic activities. More than a century after Fechner argued for an aesthetics below and sparked an empirical approach to aesthetics, the field of personality and aesthetic experiences appears to be in a healthy state. Indeed, it is now clear that aesthetics is in no small part shaped by individual differences in taste and preference (Jacobsen, 2006). Further research in the area may prove useful for tailoring educational programs to suit individual interests in the arts, particularly at a young age. Indeed, if such programs prove successful, it may usher in a new perspective in the way art is disseminated, taught and expressed. Surely there can be no better tribute to the father of the psychology of aesthetics, Gustav Fechner.

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