Appreciating Paintings of the Virtuous: The Influence of Perceived Artist Morality on Aesthetic Judgment of Their Works

• Published in: Psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts creativity, and the arts, 2024-10, Vol.18 (5), p.777-789
• Main Authors: Liang, Fuqun, Wu, Chenjing, Zhu, Mingqin, Chatterjee, Anjan, Wang, Hua, He, Dexian, Zhang, Wei, He, Xianyou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aesthetics; Artists; Female; Human; Judgment; Likability; Male; Morality; Painting (Art); Persona
• ISSN: 1931-3896; 1931-390X
• DOI: 10.1037/aca0000512

The relationship between aesthetics and morality has been long debated. The current study manipulated perceived artist morality to systematically explore its influence on aesthetic judgments of paintings. Experiment 1 showed perceived artist morality as indicated by moral appraisal significantly influenced Chinese participants' aesthetic judgments of Chinese landscape paintings. Participants rated their liking and the beauty of paintings, with the result that highly moral artists' paintings were rated significantly higher than paintings of low-morality artists. Experiment 2 used moral behavior descriptions and replicated the finding of perceived artist morality influence on Chinese participants' aesthetic judgments of Chinese landscape paintings, but we did not find this effect on aesthetic judgments of Western landscapes and abstract paintings. Experiment 3 found a cross-cultural discrepancy of the influence of perceived artist morality on aesthetic judgments. We found perceived artist morality influenced Western (Americans and Europeans) participants' aesthetic judgments of all styles of paintings. This study confirmed the influence of perceived artist morality on aesthetic judgments of paintings, and suggested artists who cultivate a highly moral persona can thereby enhance the aesthetic value of their artworks among the public.