An objective evaluation of the beholder’s response to abstract and figurative art based on construal level theory

Does abstract art evoke a different cognitive state than figurative art? To address this question empirically, we bridged art theory and cognitive research and designed an experiment leveraging construal level theory (CLT). CLT is based on experimental data showing that psychologically distant event...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2020-08, Vol.117 (33), p.19809-19815
Main Authors: Durkin, Celia, Hartnett, Eileen, Shohamy, Daphna, Kandel, Eric R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abstract art
Brain - physiology
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Decision Making
Empirical analysis
Female
Humans
Male
Paintings - psychology
Psychological factors
Social Sciences
Visual Perception
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Summary:Does abstract art evoke a different cognitive state than figurative art? To address this question empirically, we bridged art theory and cognitive research and designed an experiment leveraging construal level theory (CLT). CLT is based on experimental data showing that psychologically distant events (i.e., occurring farther away in space or time) are represented more abstractly than closer events. We measured construal level elicited by abstract vs. representational art and asked subjects to assign abstract/representational paintings by the same artist to a situation that was temporally/spatially near or distant. Across three experiments, we found that abstract paintings were assigned to the distant situation significantly more often than representational paintings, indicating that abstract art was evocative of greater psychological distance. Our data demonstrate that different levels of artistic abstraction evoke different levels of mental abstraction and suggest that CLT provides an empirical approach to the analysis of cognitive states evoked by different levels of artistic abstraction.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/PNAS.2001772117