Emotional Responses to Art

From Collation and Arousal to Cognition and Emotion

Bibliographic Data

ID7437258
AuthorsPaul J Silvia (0000-0003-4597-328X, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume9
Issue4
Pages342-357
Publication date2005-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReview of General Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1089-2680 • E-ISSN: 1939-1552
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/1089-2680.9.4.342
OpenAlexW2064378963
LanguageEN
Citations received57
References cited73

The study of emotional responses to art has remained curiously detached from the psychology of emotions. Historically, the leading tradition has been Daniel Berlyne's psychobiological model, embodied by the “new experimental aesthetics” movement of the 1970s. That theory explained hedonic qualities of art by referring to arousal-modifying “collative properties” of art, such as complexity, novelty, uncertainty, and conflict. Berlyne's influence on the experimental study of aesthetics has been enormous, largely for the better but also for the worse. Berlyne's suspicion of cognitive psychology led to an unproductive perseveration on arousal as the mechanism of “aesthetic responses.” This article describes how appraisal theories of emotion inform the study of aesthetics. Appraisal theories make new predictions about emotional responses to art, expand the domain of aesthetic emotions beyond positive emotions such as interest and enjoyment, inform other theories (e.g., prototypicality models), and reinterpret past findings

Amusement · Appraisal theory · Cognitive appraisal · Perseveration · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Color perception and design · Creativity in Education and Neuroscience

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