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

Abstract

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.

Keywords: art; construal level; perception.

Fig. 1.

Sample task events for Experiments 1 to 3. (A) Task measuring temporal distance evoked by art. In Experiment 1, subjects performed the temporal distance task; each subject saw one painting and made a distance judgment. (B) Task measuring spatial distance evoked by art. In Experiment 2, subjects performed the spatial distance task; each subject saw one painting and judged it. (C) In Experiment 3, subjects performed the temporal distance task; each subject responded to a total of 21 paintings (7 concrete, 7 indeterminate, and 7 abstract).

Fig. 2.

Results of Experiment 1. Abstract art elicits greater temporal distance than indeterminate and representational art. (A) Effect of category of art on temporal distance judgments. (B) Effect of category of art on distance response, broken down by painting. Each set of art represents one representational painting, one indeterminate paining, and one abstract painting, all by the same artist (SI Appendix). Error bars represent SE.

Fig. 3.

Results of Experiment 2. Abstract art elicits greater spatial distance than indeterminate and representational art. (A) Effect of category of art on spatial distance response. (B) Effect of category of art on distance response, broken down by painting. Each set of art represents one representational painting, one indeterminate painting, and one abstract painting, all by the same artist (SI Appendix). Error bars represent SE.

Fig. 4.

Results of Experiment 3. Abstract art elicits greater spatial distance than indeterminate and representational art. (A) Effect of category of art on spatial distance response. (B) Effect of category of art on distance response, broken down by painting. Each set of art represents one representational painting, one indeterminate painting, and one abstract painting, all by the same artist (SI Appendix). Error bars represent SE.

Fig. 5.

Proportion of instances each painting was placed in a year according to the abstraction ratings for Experiment 3. In Experiment 3, the abstraction ratings were given by the subjects.