The method of paired comparisons was used to determine the aesthetic preferences of 100 college students for 13 common polygons and curved-line forms. An empirical order of preference among the forms was established, and a “straight p–z conversion” scaling procedure was employed for assigning relative distances between the forms. Approximately half of the 78 comparisons are significantly different (0.05 level) from selections based on chance. A highly significant rank-order correlation of 0.68 was found between the order of preference for men and women. From these results one may conclude that people have some definite aesthetic preferences among common geometric forms.
