Anjan Chatterjee
Biographic Data
| ID | 3657644 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anjan Chatterjee |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anjan |
| FAMILY NAME | Chatterjee |
| SIGNATURE | CHATTERJEE A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pennsylvania |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9092-8560 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Artists’ morality colors aesthetic judgments of their paintings
The artistic rendering of facial scars
Can art promote understanding? A review of the psychology and neuroscience of aesthetic cognitivism
Aesthetic cognitivism refers to the proposition that art promotes knowledge and understanding.Despite its intuitive appeal, few empirical investigations have tested the validity of this philosophical claim.In our review, we outline prior arguments for and against aesthetic cognitivism.Then, with a focus on visual art, we discuss how empirical aesthetics and neuroscience can contribute to conversations about aesthetic cognitivism.We propose that e…
A normed art database that incorporates diverse cultures and genres
Murals and Neighborhoods
The present study explores the impact of public art, specifically murals, on two different urban neighborhoods of Philadelphia—West Philadelphia and Center City. We tested the hypotheses that aesthetic experiences are modulated by socioeconomic and cultural contexts in which they are apprehended and that art changes perceptions of neighborhoods. Participants assessed their aesthetic experience in city blocks with and without murals in both neighb…
Appreciating paintings of the virtuous
What is good is beautiful (and what isn’t, isn’t)
A well-documented “beauty-is-good” stereotype is expressed in the expectation that physically attractive people have more positive characteristics. Recent evidence also finds that unattractive faces are associated with negative character inferences. Is what is good (bad) also beautiful (ugly)? Whether this conflation of aesthetic and moral values is bidirectional is not known. This study tested the hypothesis that complementary “good-is-beautiful…
First impressions
A glance is enough to assign psychological attributes to others. Attractiveness is associated with positive attributes (‘beauty‐is‐good’ stereotype). Here, we raise the question of a similar but negative bias. Are people with facial anomalies associated with negative personal characteristics? We hypothesized that biases against faces with anomalies arise because of negative stereotypes (less warmth and competence) and forms of dehumanization (ani…
Does the frame of an artwork matter? Cultural framing and aesthetic judgments for abstract and representational art
Back to the basics
Researchers have invested a great deal in creating reliable, “gold-standard” creativity assessments that can be administered in controlled laboratory settings, though these efforts have come at the cost of not using ecologically and face-valid tasks. To help fill this critical gap, we developed and implemented a novel, face-valid paradigm that required participants to paint abstract pieces of art, which were later rated for creative quality. We f…
A Thirst for Knowledge
Curiosity, creativity, and aesthetics are typically studied separately. The extent to which they share psychological and neural mechanisms is not well understood, despite all being linked to broader personality characteristics like Openness to Experience and are driven by a desire for information and knowledge. Here, we review evidence and advance the hypothesis that creative and aesthetic experiences depend on curiosity as a driver of informatio…
What kind of impacts can artwork have on viewers? Establishing a taxonomy for aesthetic impacts
What kinds of impacts can visual art have on a viewer? To identify potential art impacts, we recruited five aesthetics experts from different academic disciplines: art history, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and theology. Together, the group curated a set of terms that corresponded to descriptive features (124 terms) and cognitive-affective impacts (69 terms) of artworks. Using these terms as prompts, participants (n = 899) were given one m…
The Neuroscience of Well-Being
Studying the two main components of well-being—hedonia and eudaimonia—can shed insight into its psychological and neural aspects. This chapter begins by highlighting how neuroscience research in two related domains—creativity and meditation—has been useful. Then, the authors review the extant neuroscientific research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Finally, they propose a testable, general framework on how the brain may realize both hedonic…
A pre-registered, multi-lab non-replication of the action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE)
The Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) is a well-known demonstration of the role of motor activity in the comprehension of language. Participants are asked to make sensibility judgments on sentences by producing movements toward the body or away from the body. The ACE is the finding that movements are faster when the direction of the movement (e.g., toward ) matches the direction of the action in the to-be-judged sentence (e.g., Art gave …
The role of expertise in the aesthetic evaluation of mathematical equations
There is a notion that mathematical equations can be considered aesthetic objects. However, whereas some aesthetic experiences are triggered primarily by the sensory properties of objects, for mathematical equations aesthetic judgments extend beyond their sensory qualities and are also informed by semantics and knowledge. Therefore, to the extent that expertise in mathematics represents the accumulation of domain knowledge, it should influence ae…
The effect of aging on facial attractiveness
How does aging affect facial attractiveness? We tested the hypothesis that people find older faces less attractive than younger faces, and furthermore, that these aging effects are modulated by the age and sex of the perceiver and by the specific kind of attractiveness judgment being made. Using empirical and computational network science methods, we confirmed that with increasing age, faces are perceived as less attractive. This effect was less …
Abstract art paintings, global image properties, and verbal descriptions
Beauty in the eyes and the hand of the beholder
The effect of unrelated social exchanges on facial attractiveness judgments
Neuroaesthetics
The field of neuroaesthetics has gained in popularity in recent years but also attracted criticism from the perspectives both of the humanities and the sciences. In an effort to consolidate research in the field, we characterize neuroaesthetics as the cognitive neuroscience of aesthetic experience, drawing on long traditions of research in empirical aesthetics on the one hand and cognitive neuroscience on the other. We clarify the aims and scope …
Neuroaesthetics
Scientific aesthetics
Leder and Nadal (2014, this issue) examine the current state of scientific aesthetics through the lens of a prescient psychological model proposed 10 years ago. These retrospective points to several future directions of which I touch on three: the nature of aesthetic emotions, the time course of emotions in aesthetic episodes, and the relationship of art and evolution
Artistic Production Following Brain Damage
We know little about the neurologic bases of art production. The idea that the right brain hemisphere is the “artistic brain” is widely held, despite the lack of evidence for this claim. Artists with brain damage can offer insight into these laterality questions. The authors used an instrument called the Assessment of Art Attributes to examine the work of two individuals with left-brain damage and one with right-hemisphere damage. In each case, t…
Neuroethics
To the Editor: In their article Monitoring and Manipulating Brain Function (HCR, May-June 2004), Martha Farah and Paul Wolpe review ways in which research in cognitive neuroscience is bearing fruit, the consumption of which may prove to further our loss of innocence. The terms monitoring and manipulation add a sinister undertone to the more comfortable notions of diagnosis and treatment. In the near future, brain imaging might monitor intentions …
Cosmetic Neurology
Basic neuroscience and neuropharmacology are beginning to yield therapies for cognitive disorders. While we can eagerly anticipate treatments for dementing illnesses, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and developmental abnormalities, these very treatments raise uncomfortable questions. If we can improve cognitive systems in disease, can we also do so in health? Should we practice cosmetic neurology
Neuroaesthetics
The field of neuroaesthetics has gained in popularity in recent years but also attracted criticism from the perspectives both of the humanities and the sciences. In an effort to consolidate research in the field, we characterize neuroaesthetics as the cognitive neuroscience of aesthetic experience, drawing on long traditions of research in empirical aesthetics on the one hand and cognitive neuroscience on the other. We clarify the aims and scope …
What kind of impacts can artwork have on viewers? Establishing a taxonomy for aesthetic impacts
What kinds of impacts can visual art have on a viewer? To identify potential art impacts, we recruited five aesthetics experts from different academic disciplines: art history, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and theology. Together, the group curated a set of terms that corresponded to descriptive features (124 terms) and cognitive-affective impacts (69 terms) of artworks. Using these terms as prompts, participants (n = 899) were given one m…
Beauty in the eyes and the hand of the beholder
The effect of unrelated social exchanges on facial attractiveness judgments
Neuroethics
To the Editor: In their article Monitoring and Manipulating Brain Function (HCR, May-June 2004), Martha Farah and Paul Wolpe review ways in which research in cognitive neuroscience is bearing fruit, the consumption of which may prove to further our loss of innocence. The terms monitoring and manipulation add a sinister undertone to the more comfortable notions of diagnosis and treatment. In the near future, brain imaging might monitor intentions …
Cosmetic Neurology
Basic neuroscience and neuropharmacology are beginning to yield therapies for cognitive disorders. While we can eagerly anticipate treatments for dementing illnesses, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and developmental abnormalities, these very treatments raise uncomfortable questions. If we can improve cognitive systems in disease, can we also do so in health? Should we practice cosmetic neurology
Artistic Production Following Brain Damage
We know little about the neurologic bases of art production. The idea that the right brain hemisphere is the “artistic brain” is widely held, despite the lack of evidence for this claim. Artists with brain damage can offer insight into these laterality questions. The authors used an instrument called the Assessment of Art Attributes to examine the work of two individuals with left-brain damage and one with right-hemisphere damage. In each case, t…
Neuroaesthetics
Scientific aesthetics
Leder and Nadal (2014, this issue) examine the current state of scientific aesthetics through the lens of a prescient psychological model proposed 10 years ago. These retrospective points to several future directions of which I touch on three: the nature of aesthetic emotions, the time course of emotions in aesthetic episodes, and the relationship of art and evolution
Neuroaesthetics
The field of neuroaesthetics has gained in popularity in recent years but also attracted criticism from the perspectives both of the humanities and the sciences. In an effort to consolidate research in the field, we characterize neuroaesthetics as the cognitive neuroscience of aesthetic experience, drawing on long traditions of research in empirical aesthetics on the one hand and cognitive neuroscience on the other. We clarify the aims and scope …
The effect of unrelated social exchanges on facial attractiveness judgments
Beauty in the eyes and the hand of the beholder
Abstract art paintings, global image properties, and verbal descriptions
The effect of aging on facial attractiveness
How does aging affect facial attractiveness? We tested the hypothesis that people find older faces less attractive than younger faces, and furthermore, that these aging effects are modulated by the age and sex of the perceiver and by the specific kind of attractiveness judgment being made. Using empirical and computational network science methods, we confirmed that with increasing age, faces are perceived as less attractive. This effect was less …
The Neuroscience of Well-Being
Studying the two main components of well-being—hedonia and eudaimonia—can shed insight into its psychological and neural aspects. This chapter begins by highlighting how neuroscience research in two related domains—creativity and meditation—has been useful. Then, the authors review the extant neuroscientific research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Finally, they propose a testable, general framework on how the brain may realize both hedonic…
A pre-registered, multi-lab non-replication of the action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE)
The Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) is a well-known demonstration of the role of motor activity in the comprehension of language. Participants are asked to make sensibility judgments on sentences by producing movements toward the body or away from the body. The ACE is the finding that movements are faster when the direction of the movement (e.g., toward ) matches the direction of the action in the to-be-judged sentence (e.g., Art gave …
The role of expertise in the aesthetic evaluation of mathematical equations
There is a notion that mathematical equations can be considered aesthetic objects. However, whereas some aesthetic experiences are triggered primarily by the sensory properties of objects, for mathematical equations aesthetic judgments extend beyond their sensory qualities and are also informed by semantics and knowledge. Therefore, to the extent that expertise in mathematics represents the accumulation of domain knowledge, it should influence ae…
Does the frame of an artwork matter? Cultural framing and aesthetic judgments for abstract and representational art
Back to the basics
Researchers have invested a great deal in creating reliable, “gold-standard” creativity assessments that can be administered in controlled laboratory settings, though these efforts have come at the cost of not using ecologically and face-valid tasks. To help fill this critical gap, we developed and implemented a novel, face-valid paradigm that required participants to paint abstract pieces of art, which were later rated for creative quality. We f…
A Thirst for Knowledge
Curiosity, creativity, and aesthetics are typically studied separately. The extent to which they share psychological and neural mechanisms is not well understood, despite all being linked to broader personality characteristics like Openness to Experience and are driven by a desire for information and knowledge. Here, we review evidence and advance the hypothesis that creative and aesthetic experiences depend on curiosity as a driver of informatio…
What kind of impacts can artwork have on viewers? Establishing a taxonomy for aesthetic impacts
What kinds of impacts can visual art have on a viewer? To identify potential art impacts, we recruited five aesthetics experts from different academic disciplines: art history, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and theology. Together, the group curated a set of terms that corresponded to descriptive features (124 terms) and cognitive-affective impacts (69 terms) of artworks. Using these terms as prompts, participants (n = 899) were given one m…
Appreciating paintings of the virtuous
What is good is beautiful (and what isn’t, isn’t)
A well-documented “beauty-is-good” stereotype is expressed in the expectation that physically attractive people have more positive characteristics. Recent evidence also finds that unattractive faces are associated with negative character inferences. Is what is good (bad) also beautiful (ugly)? Whether this conflation of aesthetic and moral values is bidirectional is not known. This study tested the hypothesis that complementary “good-is-beautiful…
First impressions
A glance is enough to assign psychological attributes to others. Attractiveness is associated with positive attributes (‘beauty‐is‐good’ stereotype). Here, we raise the question of a similar but negative bias. Are people with facial anomalies associated with negative personal characteristics? We hypothesized that biases against faces with anomalies arise because of negative stereotypes (less warmth and competence) and forms of dehumanization (ani…
The artistic rendering of facial scars
Can art promote understanding? A review of the psychology and neuroscience of aesthetic cognitivism
Aesthetic cognitivism refers to the proposition that art promotes knowledge and understanding.Despite its intuitive appeal, few empirical investigations have tested the validity of this philosophical claim.In our review, we outline prior arguments for and against aesthetic cognitivism.Then, with a focus on visual art, we discuss how empirical aesthetics and neuroscience can contribute to conversations about aesthetic cognitivism.We propose that e…
A normed art database that incorporates diverse cultures and genres
Murals and Neighborhoods
The present study explores the impact of public art, specifically murals, on two different urban neighborhoods of Philadelphia—West Philadelphia and Center City. We tested the hypotheses that aesthetic experiences are modulated by socioeconomic and cultural contexts in which they are apprehended and that art changes perceptions of neighborhoods. Participants assessed their aesthetic experience in city blocks with and without murals in both neighb…
Artists’ morality colors aesthetic judgments of their paintings
Psychology (21 works) · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis (15 works) · Cognitive psychology (13 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Creativity in Education and Neuroscience (10 works) · Art (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Visual arts (7 works) · Aesthetics (6 works) · Cognitive science (6 works)