How Stable Are Human Aesthetic Preferences Across the Lifespan?

ABSTRACT: How stable are human aesthetic preferences, and how does stability change over the lifespan? Here we investigate the stability of aesthetic taste in a cross-sectional study. We employed a simple rank-order preference task using paintings and photographs of faces and landscapes. In each of the four stimulus classes, we find that aesthetic stability generally follows an inverted U-shaped function, with the greatest degree of stability appearing in early to middle adulthood. We propose that one possible interpretation of this result is that it indicates a role for cognitive control (i.e., the ability to adapt cognition to current situations) in the construction of aesthetic taste, since cognitive control performance follows a generally similar trajectory across the lifespan. However, human ae

SUBMITTER: Pugach C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5449452 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature