Directionality in Aesthetic Judgments and Performance Evaluation: Sport Judges and Laypeople Compared

Abstract

Left-to-right readers are assumed to demonstrate a left-to-right bias in aesthetic preferences and performance evaluation. Here we tested the hypothesis that such bias occurs in left-to-right reading laypeople and gymnastic judges (n = 48 each) when asked to select the more beautiful image from a picture pair showing gymnastic or non-gymnastic actions (Experiment 1) and to evaluate videos of gymnasts' balance beam performances (Experiment 2). Overall, laypeople demonstrated a stronger left-to-right bias than judges. Unlike judges, laypeople rated images with left-to-right trajectory as more beautiful than content-wise identical images with right-to-left trajectory (Experiment 1). Also, laypeople tended to award slightly more points to videos showing left-to-right as opposed to right-to-left oriented actions (Experiment 2); however, in contrast to initial predictions the effect was weak and statistically unreliable. Collectively, judges, when considered as a group, seem less prone to directional bias than laypeople, thus tentatively suggesting that directionality may be an issue for unskilled but not for skilled judging. Possible mechanisms underlying the skill effect in Experiment 1 and the absence of clear bias in Experiment 2 are discussed alongside propositions for a broadening of perspectives in future research.

Keywords: bias; expertise; fluency; gymnastics; laterality; preference; scanning habit.

FIGURE 1

(A) Example picture pairs presented in Experiment 1: dynamic (wolf jump)/stationary (scale fwd.) gymnastic, dynamic (jogging)/stationary (phoning) non-gymnastic. Differences in color settings result from gymnastic and non-gymnastic stimuli being recorded with two different cameras. Importantly, this variation is irrelevant for the analysis of directionality in aesthetic preferences across all trials (“overall”). (B) Illustration of a trial in Experiment 1. (C) Illustration of a trial in Experiment 2. The order of criteria 1–3 (i.e., aesthetics, technique, posture) as well as the horizontal layout of the rating scale (i.e., 0 to 10 or 10 to 0) was counterbalanced across participants.

FIGURE 2

Proportion of pictures selected with a person’s left-to-right orientation relative to random selection (0.50; dotted line) separately for action element conditions in (A) laypeople and (B) judges and (C) overall (i.e., all trials) in laypeople and judges. Means are indicated by black dots and error bars illustrate two-sided 95% confidence intervals of the means. Gray bubbles represent single proportions with the size of bubbles indicating the frequency with which single proportions were observed.

FIGURE 3

Differences in performance ratings of dynamic gymnastic elements in left-to-right vs. right-to-left orientation for each evaluation criterion in (A) laypeople and (B) judges. Positive (negative) values indicate better (worse) evaluation of left-to-right elements. Black dots indicate mean differences and error bars illustrate two-sided 95% confidence intervals of the means. Gray bubbles represent single differences with the size of bubbles indicating the frequency with which single differences were observed.