An objective evaluation of the beholder’s response to abstract and figurative art based on construal level theory

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 117; no. 33; pp. 19809 - 19815
• Main Authors: Durkin, Celia, Hartnett, Eileen, Shohamy, Daphna, Kandel, Eric R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 18.08.2020
• Subjects: Abstract art; Brain - physiology; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Decision Making; Empirical analysis; Female; Humans; Male; Paintings - psychology; Psychological factors; Social Sciences; Visual Perception; art; construal level; perception
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/PNAS.2001772117

Does abstract art evoke a different cognitive state than figurative art? To address this question empirically, we bridged art theory and cognitive research and designed an experiment leveraging construal level theory (CLT). CLT is based on experimental data showing that psychologically distant events (i.e., occurring farther away in space or time) are represented more abstractly than closer events. We measured construal level elicited by abstract vs. representational art and asked subjects to assign abstract/representational paintings by the same artist to a situation that was temporally/spatially near or distant. Across three experiments, we found that abstract paintings were assigned to the distant situation significantly more often than representational paintings, indicating that abstract art was evocative of greater psychological distance. Our data demonstrate that different levels of artistic abstraction evoke different levels of mental abstraction and suggest that CLT provides an empirical approach to the analysis of cognitive states evoked by different levels of artistic abstraction.