“Novelty and Human Esthetic Preferences”, 1983 (; backlinks; similar):
Much of the so-called new experimental esthetics is concerned with liking as a function of novelty/familiarity.
The mere-exposure hypothesis, suggesting that liking is the result of ‘mere repeated exposure’ of the individual to the stimulus, is critically discussed.
The view is then considered that, more generally, the relationship between novelty/familiarity and liking takes the form of an inverted U. Theories purporting to explain this relationship are then briefly described. Next, our own experiments on letters, words and surnames, which show results consistent with the inverted-U function are reported.
However, for a certain category of stimuli, where the preference-feedback effect is in evidence, the relationship between novelty/familiarity and liking is more like a positive rectilinear one. This is well illustrated by our findings concerning preferences for Christian names.
This brings us to the topic of vogues. A survey of studies of esthetic appreciation of music highlights, among other features, the presence of cycles of fashion of varying periodicities.
The chapter ends up with some tentative general conclusions about esthetic preferences in relation to novelty.
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