Palumbo Letizia, Ruta Nicole, Bertamini Marco
Department of Psychology, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, United Kingdom; Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
School of Art and Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2015 Oct 13;10(10):e0140043. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140043. eCollection 2015.
Most people prefer smoothly curved shapes over more angular shapes. We investigated the origin of this effect using abstract shapes and implicit measures of semantic association and preference. In Experiment 1 we used a multidimensional Implicit Association Test (IAT) to verify the strength of the association of curved and angular polygons with danger (safe vs. danger words), valence (positive vs. negative words) and gender (female vs. male names). Results showed that curved polygons were associated with safe and positive concepts and with female names, whereas angular polygons were associated with danger and negative concepts and with male names. Experiment 2 used a different implicit measure, which avoided any need to categorise the stimuli. Using a revised version of the Stimulus Response Compatibility (SRC) task we tested with a stick figure (i.e., the manikin) approach and avoidance reactions to curved and angular polygons. We found that RTs for approaching vs. avoiding angular polygons did not differ, even in the condition where the angles were more pronounced. By contrast participants were faster and more accurate when moving the manikin towards curved shapes. Experiment 2 suggests that preference for curvature cannot derive entirely from an association of angles with threat. We conclude that smoothly curved contours make these abstract shapes more pleasant. Further studies are needed to clarify the nature of such a preference.
大多数人更喜欢平滑的曲线形状而非更有棱角的形状。我们使用抽象形状以及语义联想和偏好的隐性测量方法来探究这种效应的起源。在实验1中，我们使用多维内隐联想测验（IAT）来验证曲线多边形和角状多边形与危险（安全与危险词汇）、效价（积极与消极词汇）以及性别（女性与男性名字）之间联想的强度。结果表明，曲线多边形与安全和积极概念以及女性名字相关联，而角状多边形与危险和消极概念以及男性名字相关联。实验2使用了一种不同的隐性测量方法，该方法避免了对刺激进行任何分类的需要。我们使用刺激反应兼容性（SRC）任务的修订版本，采用简笔画（即人体模型）方法测试了对曲线多边形和角状多边形的趋近与回避反应。我们发现，即使在角更明显的条件下，趋近与回避角状多边形的反应时也没有差异。相比之下，当将人体模型移向曲线形状时，参与者的速度更快且更准确。实验2表明，对曲率的偏好不能完全源于角与威胁的关联。我们得出结论，平滑的曲线轮廓使这些抽象形状更令人愉悦。需要进一步的研究来阐明这种偏好的本质。
