Decoding Aesthetic Preferences: How Symmetry, Complexity, and Social Factors Shape Perception

Aesthetics play a massive role in shaping our perceptions and interactions with the world around us as they influence the way that we appreciate art, interact with other people, and use technology. The way that we process different aesthetic variables says a lot about our cognitive frameworks. Understanding the way people process aesthetic variables such as symmetry and complexity is crucial for creating designs that resonate with people at an emotional and cognitive level. Recent research highlights the way that these elements influence personal preferences and emotional responses. This research can offer valuable insights with various practical implications for fields in product and interface design. 

Dr. Norberto Grzywacz’s presentation on his recent study that delves into the processing of different aesthetic variables challenges the traditional hypotheses on aesthetic variable processing such as Birkhoff’s aesthetic measure and the independence hypothesis. The research group identified certain ‘aesthetic islands’ amongst their research participants, as they had distinguished clusters of members with specific likes and dislikes. Within the study, most men seemed to prefer symmetry, while women seemed to prefer simplicity, and individuals with more art exposure showed decreased conformity to specific clusters1. These results highlight how different social factors can lead to variance in aesthetic judgments. 

Another research group explored how interface design aesthetics such as symmetry, complexity, and shape affect emotional responses while using smartwatch dials as a case study. Their results showed that complex and round interfaces create more emotional arousal and valence than their counterparts, and that asymmetric designs cause higher emotional arousal, but symmetrical designs cause a higher emotional valence2. The findings from Dr. Grzywacz’s study can open up new avenues for interface designers to fine tune their interfaces to make them appeal more to people who belong in specific aesthetic islands. This would allow for more distinct user-specific experiences with technology for people who belong to different social niches. 

Overall, aesthetic research reveals how different characteristics such as symmetry and complexity shape individual preferences. These preferences can sometimes be predicted based on an individual's social group, but further research needs to be done on how an individual’s social niches affect their aesthetic preferences. Elucidating these effects can provide for better user experiences with technology as interface design can be tuned to fit with an individual’s preferences. 

References

1. Mather, K. B., Aleem, H., Rhee, Y., & Grzywacz, N. M. (2023). Social groups and polarization of aesthetic values from symmetry and complexity. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-47835-w

2. Wang, J., & Hsu, Y. (2020). The Relationship of Symmetry, Complexity, and Shape in Mobile Interface Aesthetics, from an Emotional Perspective—A Case Study of the Smartwatch. Symmetry, 12(9), 1403. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym12091403