The Effect of Hedonic Context on Evaluations and Experience of Paintings

Abstract

This study examined the proposition that the hedonic context within which paintings are viewed interacts with the hedonic quality of paintings to determine aesthetic evaluation. Hedonic context was manipulated using twelve positive and twelve negative odor cues in three different formats (odor alone, odor + name, name alone). The hedonic quality of paintings was manipulated using six positive, six negative and twelve neutral emotionally toned paintings. Twenty-four males and twenty-four females viewed each painting in the context of a different cue with half of the emotional cue-painting trials being hedonically congruent (e.g., pos-pos) and half hedonically incongruent (e.g., neg-pos). Following each cue-painting trial subjects provided their evaluations of the paintings along artistic (e.g., artistic quality, visual complexity) and subjective-emotional (e.g., personal meaningfulness, pleasantness, tense-relaxed) dimensions. As predicted, all aesthetic evaluations were intensified when the cue and painting were hedonically congruent. Moreover, evaluations of the most emotionally potent painting group (negative paintings) were least influenced by context, and women were more sensitive to congruency and emotional context in general than were men. The results were interpreted in accordance with prior research and principles in experimental psychology and aesthetics.