Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK.
Integr Psychol Behav Sci. 2023 Sep;57(3):840-855. doi: 10.1007/s12124-022-09701-8. Epub 2022 May 18.
We suggest an evolutionary based explanation for why humans are preoccupied with aesthetic aspects of visual input. Briefly, humans evolved to be swayed by positive and negative feelings in the form of rewards and punishments, and to pursue situations that induce rewards, even when the feeling is not sufficiently strong to be recognized as a reward. The brain is designed to offer rewards when a person focuses on certain types of visual stimuli. For example, warm colors are typically pleasant because they are associated with edible fruits, and complex images appeal to curiosity. At some point people began exploiting these types of brain rewards by beautifying objects and creating art. The utility of objects, and the associative (or communicative) aspects of art, may dominate the design, but the artist tends to add aesthetic elements. These elements imply visual aspects that do not add to the functional value or evoke memories or associations based on easily recognized features in the picture. The adaptive rationale for the rewards offered by the aesthetic elements should help explain human aesthetic appreciation.
我们提出了一个基于进化的解释，说明为什么人类会沉迷于视觉输入的美学方面。简而言之，人类进化为会受到奖励和惩罚等积极和消极情绪的影响，并追求能带来奖励的情况，即使这种感觉还不足以被识别为奖励。当一个人专注于某些类型的视觉刺激时，大脑会设计出奖励。例如，暖色通常令人愉悦，因为它们与可食用的水果有关，而复杂的图像则引起好奇心。在某个时候，人们开始通过美化物体和创造艺术来利用这些类型的大脑奖励。物体的实用性和艺术的联想（或交际）方面可能会主导设计，但艺术家往往会添加美学元素。这些元素暗示了视觉方面，不会增加功能价值，也不会根据图片中易于识别的特征唤起记忆或联想。审美元素所提供的奖励的适应合理性应该有助于解释人类的审美欣赏。
