Effects of Image Features and Personal Traits on Within- and Across-Participant Visual Aesthetic Consistencies

Whether aesthetic perception is stable over time for individuals and among individuals remains to be elucidated. In the current study, we investigated the effects of physical properties and categories of image features, and personal traits, on within- and across-participant visual aesthetic consistencies. We constructed an image library that consisted of 598 pictures and covered nine different categories. Forty-three adults without previous experience in art training conducted aesthetic evaluations of all images with a 7-point Likert scale twice on two consecutive days. The results mainly indicated that (a) complexity of images had a negative correlation on both within- and across-participant consistencies, while average hue had a positive effect; (b) concreteness of images contributed greatly to consistencies, with abstract images being associated with lower consistencies; (c) personal traits did not correlate with visual aesthetic consistencies. Our findings suggest that some stimulus-related, rather than person-related factors have effects on visual aesthetic consistency.