Creative processes of emotional images: the effects of aspect ratio on the emotional and aesthetic properties of images
Abstract
Proportions are one of the primary components of successful image composition during the visual art creation process, which, in turn, is determinant of the variety of effects of images on the viewer, including emotional reactions, attention, and aesthetic preference. The importance of image width and height ratio is especially visible in the current trend to adopt the widest possible screens in a variety of modern creative media applications: photo, video, computer games, etc. In the present study emotional and aesthetic evaluations of the three most popular aspect ratios that are used in digital media devices were compared. This was achieved by assessing emotional arousal and valence ratings together with the interest and appeal evaluations of realistic photos presented in 4:3, 16:9, and 21:9 aspect ratios. The results demonstrated that the widest images did not have an inherent advantage – photos presented in the mid-wide aspect ratio of 16:9 could be considered as more effective, because they were rated as evoking the most positive emotional reactions and as the most liked pictures. This demonstrated that single design features can have an independent emotional effect, which needs to be considered in visual design aiming to evoke emotional reactions to the viewer.
Keyword : aesthetics, aspect ratio, composition, creative process, design elements, emotion
How to Cite
Kuzinas, A., Pilkauskaitė-Valickienė, R., & Poškus, M. S. (2024). Creative processes of emotional images: the effects of aspect ratio on the emotional and aesthetic properties of images. Creativity Studies, 17(1), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2024.16396
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
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Lombard, M., Reich, R. D., Grabe, M. E., Bracken, Ch. C., & Bolmarcich Ditton, Th. (2000). Presence and television: The role of screen size. Human Communication Research, 26(1), 75–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2000.tb00750.x
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Peirce, J. W. (2009). Generating stimuli for neuroscience using PsychoPy. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.11.010.2008
Peirce, J., Gray, J. R., Simpson, S., MacAskill, M., Höchenberger, R., Sogo, H., Kastman, E., & Lindeløv, J. K. (2019). PsychoPy2: Experiments in behavior made easy. Behavior Research Methods, 51, 195–203. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-01193-y
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Reber, R., Winkielman, P., & Schwarz, N. (1998). Effects of perceptual fluency on affective judgments. Psychological Science, 9(1), 45–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00008
Rolls, E. T. (2017). Neurobiological foundations of aesthetics and art. New Ideas in Psychology, 47, 121–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2017.03.005
Scherer, K. R. (2004). Which emotions can be induced by music? What are the underlying mechanisms? And how can we measure them? Journal of New Music Research, 33(3), 239–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/0929821042000317822
Schindler, I., Hosoya, G., Menninghaus, W., Beermann, U., Wagner, V., Eid, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2017). Measuring aesthetic emotions: A review of the literature and a new assessment tool. PloS ONE, 12(6). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178899
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Skorupa, P. (2014). Shocking contents in social and commercial advertising. Creativity Studies, 7(2), 69–81. https://doi.org/10.3846/23450479.2014.997317
Tan, E. S. (2000). Emotion, art and the humanities. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 116–136). New York.
Ueda, R., Kuraguchi, K., & Ashida, H. (2016). Asymmetric effect of expression intensity on evaluations of facial attractiveness. SAGE Open, 6(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016677569
Valdez, P., & Mehrabian, A. (1994). Effects of color on emotions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123(4), 394–409. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.123.4.394
Vartanian, O., Navarrete, G., Chatterjee, A., Fich, L. B., Leder, H., Modroño, C., Rostrup, N., Skov, M., Corradi, G., & Nadal, M. (2019). Preference for curvilinear contour in interior architectural spaces: Evidence from experts and nonexperts. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 13(1), 110–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000150
Winkielman, P., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2001). Mind at ease puts a smile on the face: Psychophysiological evidence that processing facilitation elicits positive affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 989–1000. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.989
Xenakis, I., Arnellos, A., & Darzentas, J. (2012). The functional role of emotions in aesthetic judgment. New Ideas in Psychology, 30(2), 212–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2011.09.003
Yu, Q., & Nagai, Y. (2020). A new approach to teaching emotional design. Social Sciences, 9(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9110210
Zentner, M. R. (2001). Preferences for colours and colour: Emotion combinations in early childhood. Developmental Science, 4(4), 389–398. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7687.00180
Zettl, H. (2011). Wadsworth series. Sight, sound, motion: Applied media aesthetics. Wadsworth Cangage Learning.
Belke, B., Leder, H., Strobach, T., & Carbon, C.-C. (2010). Cognitive fluency: High-Level processing dynamics in art appreciation. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 4(4), 214–222. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019648
Berlyne, D. E. (1972). Ends and means of experimental aesthetics. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 26(4), 303–325. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0082439
Brielmann, A. A., & Pelli, D. G. (2019). Intense beauty requires intense pleasure. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02420
Briesemeister, B. B., Kuchinke, L., & Jacobs, A. M. (2012). Emotional valence: A bipolar continuum or two independent dimensions? SAGE Open, 2(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244012466558
Codispoti, M., & Cesarei, de A. (2007). Arousal and attention: Picture size and emotional reactions. Psychophysiology, 44(5), 680–686. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2007.00545.x
Courtney, Ch. G., Dawson, M. E., Schell, A. M., Iyer, A., & Parsons, Th. D. (2010). Better than the real thing: Eliciting fear with moving and static computer-generated stimuli. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 78(2), 107–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2010.06.028
Cutting, J. E. (2015). The framing of characters in popular movies. Art and Perception, 3, 191–212. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134913-00002031
Cutting, J. E. (2006). The mere exposure effect and aesthetic preference. In P. Locher, C. Martindale, & L. Dorfman (Eds.), Foundations and Frontiers in Aesthetics. New directions in aesthetics, creativity, and the arts (pp. 33–46). C. Martindale & A. Berleant (Series Eds.). Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.
Detenber, B. H., & Reeves, B. (1996). A bio-informational theory of emotion: Motion and image size effects on viewers. Journal of Communication, 46(3), 66–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1996.tb01489.x
Detenber, B. H., Simons, R. F., & Bennett Jr., G. G. (1998). Roll ‘em!: The effects of picture motion on emotional responses. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 42(1), 113–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838159809364437
Detenber, B. H., Simons, R. F., & Reiss, J. E. (2000). The emotional significance of color in television presentations. Media Psychology, 2(4), 331–355. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532785XMEP0204_02
Frijda, N. H., & Sundararajan, L. (2007). Emotion refinement: A theory inspired by Chinese poetics. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(3), 227–241. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2007.00042.x
Gao, X.-P., & Xin, J. H. (2006). Investigation of human’s emotional responses on colors. Color: Research and Application, 31(5), 411–417. https://doi.org/10.1002/col.20246
Gerger, G., Leder, H., & Kremer, A. (2014). Context effects on emotional and aesthetic evaluations of artworks and IAPS pictures. Acta Psychologica, 151, 174–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2014.06.008
Islam, Md B., Lai-Kuan, W., & Chee-Onn, W. (2017). A survey of aesthetics-driven image recomposition. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 76, 9517–9542. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3561-5
Kuchinke, L., Trapp, S., Jacobs, A. M., & Leder, H. (2009). Pupillary responses in art appreciation: Effects of aesthetic emotions. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 3(3), 156–163. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014464
Kurdi, B., Lozano, Sh., & Banaji, M. R. (2017). Introducing the open affective standardized image set (OASIS). Behavior Research Methods, 49, 457–470. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-016-0715-3
Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2008). International affective picture system (IAPS): Affective ratings of pictures and instruction manual. Technical Report A-8. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States. https://gitlab.pavlovia.org/rsaitov/experimental-psycholoy-ltu-final/raw/563e2b213be7eb54829116f05b83f0124362d71b/IAPS.TechManual.1-20.2008(1).pdf
Larson, Ch. L., Aronoff, J., & Steuer, E. L. (2012). Simple geometric shapes are implicitly associated with affective value. Motivation and Emotion, 36, 404–413. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-011-9249-2
Lin, S.-Y., & Chang, H.-I. (2020). Does open-plan office environment support creativity? The mediating role of activated positive mood. Creativity Studies, 13(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2020.10332
Lombard, M., Reich, R. D., Grabe, M. E., Bracken, Ch. C., & Bolmarcich Ditton, Th. (2000). Presence and television: The role of screen size. Human Communication Research, 26(1), 75–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2000.tb00750.x
Lundqvist, D., Esteves, F., & Ӧhman, A. (2004). The face of wrath: The role of features and configurations in conveying social threat. Cognition and Emotion, 18(2), 161–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930244000453
Marchewka, A., Żurawski, Ł., Jednoróg, K., & Grabowska, A. (2014). The Nencki affective picture system (NAPS): Introduction to a novel, standardized, wide-range, high-quality, realistic picture database. Behavior Research Methods, 46, 596–610. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-013-0379-1
McManus, I. Ch., Cook, R., & Hunt, A. (2010). Beyond the golden section and normative aesthetics: Why do individuals differ so much in their aesthetic preferences for rectangles? Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 4(2), 113–126. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017316
McManus, I. Ch., Zhou, F. A., l’Anson, S., Waterfield, L., Stöver, K., & Cook, R. (2011). The psychometrics of photographic cropping: The influence of colour, meaning, and expertise. Perception, 40(3), 332–357. https://doi.org/10.1068/p6700
Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Wassiliwizky, E., Schindler, I., Hanich, J., Jacobsen, T., & Koelsch, S. (2019). What are aesthetic emotions? Psychological Review, 126(2), 171–195. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000135
Peirce, J. W. (2009). Generating stimuli for neuroscience using PsychoPy. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.11.010.2008
Peirce, J., Gray, J. R., Simpson, S., MacAskill, M., Höchenberger, R., Sogo, H., Kastman, E., & Lindeløv, J. K. (2019). PsychoPy2: Experiments in behavior made easy. Behavior Research Methods, 51, 195–203. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-01193-y
Polzella, D. J., Hammar, S. H., & Hinkle, Ch. W. (2005). The effect of color on viewers’ ratings of paintings. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 23(2), 153–163. https://doi.org/10.2190/ECK9-C18E-RQN9-7WNE
Reber, R., Winkielman, P., & Schwarz, N. (1998). Effects of perceptual fluency on affective judgments. Psychological Science, 9(1), 45–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00008
Rolls, E. T. (2017). Neurobiological foundations of aesthetics and art. New Ideas in Psychology, 47, 121–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2017.03.005
Scherer, K. R. (2004). Which emotions can be induced by music? What are the underlying mechanisms? And how can we measure them? Journal of New Music Research, 33(3), 239–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/0929821042000317822
Schindler, I., Hosoya, G., Menninghaus, W., Beermann, U., Wagner, V., Eid, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2017). Measuring aesthetic emotions: A review of the literature and a new assessment tool. PloS ONE, 12(6). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178899
Silvia, P. J. (2005). Emotional responses to art: From collation and arousal to cognition and emotion. Review of General Psychology, 9(4), 342–357. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.4.342
Skorupa, P. (2014). Shocking contents in social and commercial advertising. Creativity Studies, 7(2), 69–81. https://doi.org/10.3846/23450479.2014.997317
Tan, E. S. (2000). Emotion, art and the humanities. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 116–136). New York.
Ueda, R., Kuraguchi, K., & Ashida, H. (2016). Asymmetric effect of expression intensity on evaluations of facial attractiveness. SAGE Open, 6(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016677569
Valdez, P., & Mehrabian, A. (1994). Effects of color on emotions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123(4), 394–409. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.123.4.394
Vartanian, O., Navarrete, G., Chatterjee, A., Fich, L. B., Leder, H., Modroño, C., Rostrup, N., Skov, M., Corradi, G., & Nadal, M. (2019). Preference for curvilinear contour in interior architectural spaces: Evidence from experts and nonexperts. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 13(1), 110–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000150
Winkielman, P., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2001). Mind at ease puts a smile on the face: Psychophysiological evidence that processing facilitation elicits positive affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 989–1000. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.989
Xenakis, I., Arnellos, A., & Darzentas, J. (2012). The functional role of emotions in aesthetic judgment. New Ideas in Psychology, 30(2), 212–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2011.09.003
Yu, Q., & Nagai, Y. (2020). A new approach to teaching emotional design. Social Sciences, 9(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9110210
Zentner, M. R. (2001). Preferences for colours and colour: Emotion combinations in early childhood. Developmental Science, 4(4), 389–398. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7687.00180
Zettl, H. (2011). Wadsworth series. Sight, sound, motion: Applied media aesthetics. Wadsworth Cangage Learning.