Frontiers of Empirical Aesthetics: The Social and Individual Bases of the Aesthetic Mind

This Research Topic aims to identify and advance emerging directions within empirical aesthetics by publishing research that has thus far received comparatively limited attention in the field, yet holds potential to broaden its conceptual, methodological, and applied scope. In particular, the present collection takes as its starting point two fundamental questions: Why and how do aesthetic experiences differ across individuals, social groups, and cultures? To what extent are these experiences shared, socially shaped, or uniquely personal? While the field has built up substantial knowledge about visual and cognitive mechanisms of core aesthetic domains, such as visual art and music, the personal and social factors that drive aesthetic experiences remain comparatively underexplored.

In this context, the present collection seeks empirical contributions examining the social and individual bases of aesthetic experience. In particular, we define “empirical contributions” as those grounded in systematic and generalizable analysis of data. We interpret “aesthetic experience” broadly to include aesthetic perception, evaluation, emotional response, and judgment relating, but not limited to, pleasure, beauty, and preference, including unusual aesthetic experiences (e.g., awe and sublimity) as well as ugliness.

In line with the nature of the journal and in addition to the emphasis on the social and individual basis of aesthetic experience, the collection aims to broaden the frontiers of empirical aesthetics research. Therefore, we especially welcome contributions across the following areas:

1. Underexplored domains of empirical aesthetics, such as: audience experience during live performance; AI; fashion and everyday clothing; social identity; design, architecture, and the built environment; literature and narrative; typography and visual communication; and everyday aesthetic experiences related to or in response to such as gardening, gastronomy, cooking, and home-making.

2. Innovative approaches to established questions, such as: meta-analysis; computational modelling; field experiments; mixed-methods designs; and open-data analyses. We welcome methodological advancements and analytical approaches contributing to the development of theories that have testable predictions.

3. Extensions of empirical aesthetics into new contexts through applied, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary work, including: education and development; physical and mental health and well-being; UN Sustainable Development Goals; social, racial, cultural, and environmental justice; human–computer interaction and artificial intelligence; business and organisational settings; and cross-cultural and non-Western perspectives on aesthetic experience.

We invite contributions that examine how aesthetic experience is shaped by the person and their social world, including the personality traits and individual differences that predict preference, the role of attitudes, identity, and self-presentation, social and intergroup influences on taste, developmental change across the lifespan, and cross-cultural variation in what is found beautiful or preferable. Work combining these person- and society-level questions with rigorous perceptual, behavioural, or computational methods is especially welcome.

We particularly encourage submissions that demonstrate clear contributions to expanding the boundaries of empirical aesthetics and that articulate explicitly how their work advances an emerging direction. For studies that do not directly investigate social or individual factors, authors should clearly articulate the implications of their findings for understanding the social and individual bases of aesthetic experience. While the scope is intentionally broad, submissions will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis with respect to their contribution to these aims.

Overall, this Research Topic aims to set a forward-looking agenda for empirical aesthetics, highlighting emerging domains that are reshaping the field, while promoting a science of aesthetics that better explains why aesthetic experiences differ across individuals, social groups, and cultures.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Registered Report
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Empirical aesthetics, Everyday aesthetics, Interdisciplinary research, Applied aesthetics, Aesthetic experience

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.