SOCIAL HEURISTICS IN INTERIOR DESIGN PREFERENCES

• Published in: Journal of environmental psychology Vol. 22; no. 4; pp. 369 - 386
• Main Author: RITTERFELD, UTE
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier India Pvt Ltd 01.12.2002; Elsevier
• Subjects: Aesthetics; Analysis; Applied psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Environment. Ecology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Heuristics; Interior design; Judgments; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Social cognitive processes; Impression formation; Human; Social perception; Prototype; Preference; Priming effect; Aesthetics; Piece of furniture; Social cognition; Judgment
• ISSN: 0272-4944; 1522-9610
• DOI: 10.1006/jevp.2002.0276

A model of aesthetic impression formation is introduced which had been developed according to the heuristic–systematic processing theory in social judgment. It is assumed that heuristic processing is based upon socially relevant aspects of lifestyles (labeled as social heuristic), whereas structural properties are processed in a systematic analysis. Theory suggests that the social heuristic allows a faster and more certain aesthetic decision-making than the systematic attribute analysis. The social heuristic, however, can only be adopted if the target's social information is decodable and consistent (social prototypes). If a target's social properties are not decodable or inconsistent (polyvalent), theory assumes a systematic analysis of nonsocial properties. Two experiments were conducted to confirm the existence of social heuristic processing in aesthetic judgment. In the first experiment, an on-line measure to control latencies for preference judgment was used in a priming paradigm. Experiment two is based on a paper-and-pencil task in which subjects had the free choice of ranking the targets to be evaluated. Data from both experiments reveal the expected higher latencies and higher mean ranks in the evaluation order for polyvalent rather than prototypical targets. These results are interpreted as indicators of the same underlying pattern of successful social heuristic processing in prototypes, and its failure in polyvalents.