Empirical Aesthetics: Context, Extra Information, and Framing

Author(s)
Helmut Leder, Matthew Pelowski
Abstract

In most people’s lives, aesthetic experiences are probably frequent and occur in multiple, often very different and idiosyncratic situations. Usually, aesthetic experience involves an episode with the experiencing person in a specific situation, stretched out over time, in which certain objects, their environment, and various constituting elements are brought together. In this chapter, the authors provide a general introduction on the importance of such contextual factors in aesthetic experiences. The chapter begins with a brief overview of the nature of aesthetic experiences as a topic beyond typical aesthetic ob­ jects, with regard to how aesthetic experiences emerge as interactions between person, objects, and environment, and thus how they are embedded in informational contexts. In particular, the importance of information context is discussed: how we frame, anticipate, explain, and understand the factors of our experience as we live them. Also examined is how, in psychological studies, extra information or titles presented with pictures and art­ works, or instructions regarding the context—so-called framing effects—have been shown to affect aesthetic experiences. The chapter ends with an outlook on major challenges, goals, and future directions.

Organisation(s)
Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Vienna Cognitive Science Hub
Pages
921-942
No. of pages
22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198824350.013.43
Publication date
2021
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
501002 Applied psychology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Psychology(all)
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/empirical-aesthetics-context-extra-information-and-framing(119b0342-73a2-4f5f-a5d3-e28869bf3c47).html