What do you think about this car?
It is often said that curvilinear shapes are more appeal to human being. It is based in some belief that we associate sharpness with danger and we get in a warning state, or also because we are surrounded with nature and all the curves within it makes us feel more comfortable in round spaces. Today we are going to analyze those beliefs and try to get them down-to-earth.
We are going to review the work of Vartanian (2013) about the impact in the brain when visualizing curves. It is actually well believed that curvature elicits pleasant emotions, but it is very difficult to measure.
We are going to review the work of Vartanian (2013) about the impact in the brain when visualizing curves. It is actually well believed that curvature elicits pleasant emotions, but it is very difficult to measure.
To reach our goal, Vartanian ran some investigation using fMRI to understand what is happening in our brain in terms of activations when we are exposed to these types of curves and lines represented in the stimuli (in this case as architectural pictures).
From a strictly behavioral perspective, the first insight
of the investigation is that the amount of curves was highly correlated with
the beauty rating.
Then the study consisted of presenting participants in a functional MRI (fMRI) scanner with photographs of interior spaces that varied in contour.
Then the study consisted of presenting participants in a functional MRI (fMRI) scanner with photographs of interior spaces that varied in contour.
Neuroanatomically,
the results demonstrated that judging the beauty of curvilinear spaces was
associated exclusively with an increase in ACC activity over and above judging
the beauty of rectilinear spaces. ACC is part of Brown et al.’s core circuit
for aesthetic processing (Brown 2011 - Naturalizing aesthetics: Brain areas for
aesthetic appraisal across sensory modalities), and its activation here is
consistent with the wealth of behavioral data that point to the involvement of
emotion and reward in preference for curved objects.
For the
beauty judgment run, the contrast of curvilinear-rectilinear spaces revealed
significant activation in ACC exclusively (Z = 3.54, x = –6, y = 42, z = –6, k
= 11).
Conclusion
Beauty and curvilinear contour activated certain regions (ACC) that
are strongly responsive to the reward properties and emotional salience of
objects. So take that in mind when you are designing stuff for your business
(from logos, products to even websites) to help yourself from a pure neuroscientifically
point of view to improve the impact in your consumer.
Full
article and bibliography in http://www.pnas.org/content/110/Supplement_2/10446.full.pdf
As always,
thanks for taking the time to read, any comment will be well received.