 Smooth and Hard or Beautiful and Elegant? Experts’ Conceptual Structure of the Aesthetics of MaterialsBarbara E. Marschallek and Thomas Jacobsen SAGE Open, 2022, vol. 12, issue 2, 21582440221096130 Abstract: The present study’s aim was to examine whether interindividual differences in levels of expertise influence the aesthetic processing of materials. In particular, we elucidated experts’ conceptual structure of the aesthetics of different materials using a free list task and compared it to recent non-expert data. To this end, we asked 401 architects, designers, and interior designers to list adjectives that could be used to describe the aesthetics of materials. The experts listed a large number of sensorial as well as aesthetically evaluative terms. As measured in a supplementary study, a slight majority of the listed terms had a neutral valence, followed by a large proportion of positive terms. The term beautiful , frequently the preeminent term in aesthetics, was by no means one of the most relevant terms in both studies. The results suggest that the conceptual structure of the aesthetics of materials is multifaceted and expressive, and, to some extent, influenced by expertise. Furthermore, the findings indicate that concepts underlying materials aesthetics differ from other domains. Keywords: aesthetics; evaluation; perception; conceptual structure; material; expertise; psychology of design (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:12:y:2022:i:2:p:21582440221096130 DOI: 10.1177/21582440221096130 Access Statistics for this article More articles in SAGE Open |
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