The Aesthetic Pleasure in Design Scale: The development of a scale to measure aesthetic pleasure for designed artifacts

Author(s)
Janneke Blijlevens, Clementine Thurgood, Paul Hekkert, Lin-Lin Chen, Helmut Leder, T. W. Allan Whitfield
Abstract

There is a lack of consistency regarding the scales used to measure aesthetic pleasure within design. They are often chosen ad hoc or adopted from other research fields without being validated for designed artifacts. Moreover, many scales do not measure aesthetic pleasure in isolation, but instead include its determinants (e.g., novelty). Therefore, we developed a new scale to measure aesthetic pleasure and included scales to measure its known determinants for discriminant validity purposes, which automatically led to validating these determinants as well. In the exploratory phase, we identified highly reliable items representative of aesthetic pleasure and its determinants across product categories. In the validation phase, we confirmed these findings across different countries (Australia, the Netherlands, and Taiwan). The final scale consists of 5 items, “beautiful,” “attractive,” “pleasing to see,” “nice to see,” and “like to look at,” that together reliably capture the construct of aesthetic pleasure. Several recommendations are formulated regarding the application of this scale in design studies and beyond.

Organisation(s)
Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology
External organisation(s)
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, The University of Sydney, Eindhoven University of Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Delft University of Technology
Journal
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts
Volume
11
Pages
86-98
No. of pages
13
ISSN
1931-3896
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000098
Publication date
02-2017
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
501001 General psychology, 501011 Cognitive psychology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Developmental and Educational Psychology, Visual Arts and Performing Arts, Applied Psychology
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/the-aesthetic-pleasure-in-design-scale-the-development-of-a-scale-to-measure-aesthetic-pleasure-for-designed-artifacts(436720c8-0107-4cbd-b6df-14d2a4ad0803).html