Abstract
In an effort to establish the reality of a preference for the golden section a group of subjects who were already trained and experienced in matters of aesthetic taste were recruited to engage in a simple line partitioning exercise. The experimental protocol employed in the exercise followed one which has been fully described in the literature. It was anticipated that for reasons of convention or of taste the subjects would partition the line segments mainly in the proportions of the golden ratio. The reality did not match the expectation in so far as the subjects partitioned the line segments mainly in the proportions of 1:1 and 1:2. The result was interpreted in terms of the development of aesthetic maturity being accompanied by a preference for higher levels of spontaneously observable symmetry.
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