Perceiving sublimity and beauty in photographs: influences of physical properties

The sublime remains one of the most enduring aesthetic concepts in Western aesthetic discourse, and is often described, notably in Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful of 1759, as an aesthetic delight that evokes emotions of fear and shock. In three studies (total N ≈ 100) each containing 60 pre-selected photographs, we explored the role of physical aspects of images upon perceptions of sublimity and beauty. Participants rated beauty and sublimity by responding on a two-dimensional grid so that both properties were reported simultaneously. We particularly wanted to manipulate size, with the largest images projected onto a laboratory wall and being 200 cms x 150 cms in size. We compared absolute size (large vs. small), viewing distance (far vs. close), visual angle, height (high vs. central) and colour (vs monochrome), and found a number of double dissociations. The design and analysis treated both participants and images as random effects using lmer() in R. After controlling for by-subject and by-item variations, increase of stimuli size was associated with a significant increase of sublimity rating but not beauty rating. On the other hand, colour in an image influenced the rating of beauty but not sublimity. We are also carrying out analyses of images varying in brightness and contrast to assess effects on sublimity and beauty. Burke, E. (2009). A philosophical inquiry into the origins of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful. Oxon, UK: Routledge Classics. (Original work published 1759).