Just caught this on Reuters, and it sort of supports the idea of beauty
and elegance as a fundamental factor in design success.
Maybe it also explains the success of more mundane designs?
TORONTO (Reuters) - When someone is "easy on the eye," it could
also be because they are easy on the brain, according to a new
international study.
Scientists from universities in the United States and New Zealand
analyzed previous studies and conducted new research to find that
attractiveness could be linked to ease of mental processing.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, looked
at previous research that found people rated images of standard-looking
objects or people as more attractive than variations of these things.
They also tested people by showing them a prototype image made up
of dots and geometric patterns and variations of it to see which people
liked the most.
Piotr Winkielman of the University of California, San Diego, who
led the research, said the less time it took to classify a pattern, the
more attractive it was judged.
"We show that this preference for the prototype is a function of
the prototype being particularly easy to perceive," Winkielman told
Reuters on Tuesday. "So the easier the better."
Winkielman pointed out that this "beauty in averageness" could
apply to things like the silhouette of a car, a watch, as well as to
people.
"You can even get it for the taste of chili," he said.
"An anecdote was reported in the paper that some guy won a chili
cooking contest by basically going around to various competitors and
putting a spoon of chili into his own pot and eventually he found the
perfect, well balanced flavor."
Glenn Johnson
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